


Marinette March 2019

by LittleBunny3593



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2019-11-14 03:17:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 23,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18044471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleBunny3593/pseuds/LittleBunny3593
Summary: Happy Marinette March 2019! Here's some lovely Marinette to brighten up your month!





	1. Day 1: Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> I have no ownership of Miraculous Ladybug or the characters within the story. This is a fan-based work for the enjoyment of those around

Marinette was ready. Adrien’s gift was finished and nicely packaged with a green ribbon placed on top. She had spent a few sleepless days making a beanie to match his scarf, which would probably be appreciated with the cold weather from the frosty winter that hit Paris not too long ago. This was the time she was going to finally give it to him before he went to fencing practice. Just walk up to him, hand him the gift, and wish him a good practice before making her way back home. Just a few lines, maybe a small conversation, and leave. It was a plan that could have no wrongs.

Except for the fact that she forgot the gift.

“Really, girl? Again?” Alya chuckled.

“It’s not funny! I had it all set up and ready to go but-” Marinette gestured wildly, unable to explain that Hawkmoth decided to wake up early which made her rush straight to school after defeating the akuma with no time to go home. She didn’t want to be late for school anymore since her parents had been concerned about her tardiness and absences from her classes and was doing her best to always be on time. The only downside was that it affected other parts in her normal life, like not grabbing the gift even though she _specifically_ left it on her desk with a note telling her _not_ to forget it.

“Whatever you say girl. You can just grab it at lunch when you go home,” Alya advised with a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. Marinette slumped before taking a deep breath and nodded, rejuvenating herself.

“You’re right. There’s still time to give it to him,” she said and Alya gave her an encouraging smile before Nino arrived, who reprimanded Alya for trying to jump into a risky situation for the sake of the Ladyblog.

Classes went along without an issue and as everyone was dismissed for lunch, Marinette repeated a mantra in her head to not forget the gift as she made her way home.

As she waited at the light to cross the street, Marinette took in the people that walked around her, all equally cold. All the more reason to give the beanie to Adrien.

A huddled figure by the side of the school caught her attention and she noticed a homeless person sitting on a piece of cardboard, his frayed hat on the ground to catch some spare change from passerbys. She frowned as she walked him shiver, but the light changed and Marinette was jostled as the crowd moved forward to cross.

She hurried inside and gave a quick greeting to her parents before rushing up the stairs to grab the gift and put it in her backpack so she wouldn’t forget before heading into the kitchen to eat. Sabine came inside and started making some tea, offering some to Marinette.

“It’s freezing out there, and a cup of tea would keep you warm,” she suggested.

“Mamam? Could you make a small box of pastries? There was a homeless man sitting outside and it looks like he could use something.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Sabine beamed and went downstairs to get the pastries ready as Marinette finished up.

As she headed back to school, her parents handed a her box of pastries, a cup of tea, and some money. Marinette made her way back and and walked up to the man, where she carefully placed the money in the hat and offered the box.

“Thank you so much, mademoiselle. This will keep me nice and warm,” he said happily. Marinette smiled but it fell into a frown when she watched him take it with trembling hands before she looked down at the frayed hat. As he happily opened the box, Marinette stood there for a second before coming to a decision and unzipped her backpack.

“One more thing,” she presented him with the gift and he took it curiously and opened it, staring in shock at the beanie.

“I’m sorry if it doesn’t fit-”

“It’s beautiful,” he cut her off and put it on with a teary smile, “Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure, stay warm,” Marinette hurried off as the warning bell rang, a smile on her face as she made her way to the locker room to grab her books and take off her large coat.

“That was kind of you, Marinette,” Tikki told her as she grabbed her books from her locker.

“I couldn’t leave him in the cold. I can always make Adrien another hat but I may not see that man again, and knowing that he might be stuck out there in the cold would be a sad thought to have.”

“‘I’m happy he got to experience the Dupain-Cheng warmth!” Tikki giggled and Marinette smiled, cuddling with the kawmii.

“Me too.”

 


	2. Day 2: Pre-Origins

Marinette tucked her stray hairs into the base of her bun and glanced at herself in the mirror. She didn’t see anything out of place and smoothed down her shirt, looking into her eyes that peered quietly back at her.

“At least there’s art class today,” she sighed, hoping to be as far away from Chloe as she could be. Marinette headed downstairs to be greeted by her father quickly coming in to grab a random ingredient which he had most likely misplaced downstairs and couldn’t find.

“Good morning! I misplaced the powdered sugar again so it’s easier to grab the one from up here. Can you come back early today to watch the shop while your mother and I go drop off a delivery to the Bourgeouis?”

“Of course, Papa. I can manage the shop for a couple hours when you leave.”

“Thank you, dear. I don’t know what we would do without you,” Tom kissed his daughter’s forehead before patting her cheek affectionately and running back downstairs. Marinette started to make breakfast, dropping her spoon twice and accidentally spilling cocoa powder on the floor. She sighed and cleaned the mess, wondering when the day would come when she wouldn’t be a disaster.

Sabine came in as Marinette finished up breakfast and they exchanged a good morning kiss.

“You have a good day today. I suppose your father already talked about the delivery today, so all you need to do is keep an eye out on the shop today and make sure that Monsieur Abdul gets his delivery as well. It looks like it’s Alix birthday today. You know Alix, right?”

  
“She’s in my art class but we don’t talk much to each other. I didn’t know it was her birthday,” Marinette hesitated, wondering if she should’ve gotten something for her classmate.

“I prepared a small box of macarons you can give to her,” Sabine smiled, reading her daughter’s expression.

“Thank you, Mamam,” Marinette smiled as her mother handed her the box. The two headed downstairs where Marinette kissed her parents and went to school.

As she got seated next to Rose who greeted her with the usual bubbly personality, a screech echoed through the halls, making them look outside in concern until Chloe stormed inside, Sabrina trailing after her in a worry.

“I can’t believe that she would do that to me? Doesn’t she know who I am? I’m going to talk to Daddy and have her expelled from this school!” Chloe ranted while Sabrina nodded along, looking upset for her friend.

“I wonder what happened this time?” Rose wondered.

“Someone probably brushed against her,” Marinette muttered to Rose softly, but not soft enough for Chloe’s ears.

“Why don’t you say that again to my face, Dupain-Cheng? Your parents are bringing an important delivery to my Daddy’s party tonight and it would be a shame if something was wrong with the deserts. Your parents will lose their jobs in no time. All it takes is one call,” Chloe pulled out her phone menacingly.

"Nothing,” Marinette mumbled.

“That’s more like it,” Chloe huffed. “By the way, is that a new look for you? I love how the flour dulls the color of your hair,” she laughed haughtily with Sabrina alongside her before sitting down. Marinette felt her hair and looked down to see white powder on her hands and recalled her Papa patting her head when in the kitchen.

“Of course, my luck,” Marinette puffed as she got seated, trying to get the flour out of her hair without messing up her bun. Rose helped her until M. Bustier came in, ready to begin class. Marinette sighed, it was going to be a restless day with an upset Chloe.

Sure enough, when heading into her art class that provided the only solace from Chloe, Marinette was met with the blonde yelling at a smaller girl with bright pink and messy hair.

“You don’t have any talent, Chloe. All you’re doing is taking up space, so get out,” Alix muttered, putting on her face mask as she shook up her cans.

“I’ll have you know my portfolio has more art and talent than any scribbles you make on the wall. Your art is utterly ridiculous!” Chloe snapped as Marinette tried to slip past the two of them quietly to get to her normal chair.   
“How about I put my little scribbles on you,” Alix growled and menacingly aimed the cans at the blonde. Chloe screeched and backed away, ramming into Marinette and sending the box of macarons flying and falling to the floor. Marinette was relieved that the box didn’t open but that relief was crushed once Chloe stomped on the box as she rushed out with a threat to call her dad. 

“Good riddance,” Alix grumbled and got to work.

“Um, Happy Birthday, Alix.” Marinette said as she picked up the box, “I got you a gift but I’m not sure if you want them anymore.”

“Oh, thanks Marinette. I’m surprised you knew. I’ll take the gift anyway since they’re might be some that are salvageable from Chloe’s rage. I heard that she expelled a girl today in the morning for accidentally bumping into her and dropping her bag on the floor,” Alix shook her head in annoyance. “She’s a drama queen that always wants attention to make up for her lack of talent. If it weren’t for her dad she would be much more humble. I noticed she always messed with you. You should speak up to her and fight back. No one should bully someone else like that.”

“I know, it’s just so hard because she’s intimidating,” Marinette glumly sat down on her chair.

“All it takes is a little courage to stand up to yourself, it’s not super hard.”

“Maybe one day,” Marinette shrugged weakly, not sure if she could ever have the courage to stand up to Chloe Bourgeois. If she could though, Marinette thought to herself, it would definitely be miraculous.


	3. Day 3: Tea Time

As raised by her mother, Marinette had come to enjoy drinking tea as a form of relaxation. As a child it was a custom for her Mamam to make a cup of jasmine tea and talk when Marinette would have a rough day at school or be stressed about a design she wasn’t getting quite right. But as her time as Ladybug got more taxing and the bakery more productive, that small unspoken ritual started to dwindle and the beautiful chinese tea pot and cups they would use started to collect dust, hidden behind the other dishes that were used on a common basis.

 

Marinette had planned to meet with Master Fu to talk about more information on her and her possible future duties as the next Guardian, which was a very serious matter. She had been anxious about it the whole day during school, wondering if she was really ready for it or not despite Tikki comforting her that it she was more than ready. As she warily entered the his home, Marinette was greeted with two cups of warm jasmine tea in a ceramic tea cup similar to the one she had at home. She picked it up and looked at the designs on it, remembering the ones back home.

“Do you like them?” Master Fu asked.

“Yes, they look like the ones I have at home,” she replied. Marinette took a deep inhale of the tea as she sipped it, and smiled as the warmth seeped through her, nostalgia running through her body.

“When I was training, my Master would make me jasmine tea to help me relax. It’s always been a nostalgic moment for me,” Master Fu smiled warmly at his own mug in his hands.

“Me too,” Marinette relaxed and the two silently sat there for a minute, soaking in on forgotten memories before they started discussing the plans for the future.

 

“That went well!” Tikki chirped as Marinette walked home and the young heroine agreed. Master Fu was patient with her in teaching her the important of the Tajitu, Wu Xing, and the zodiac with the miraculouses. Each miraculous had a specific ability that could only be unlocked with a wielder that resonated that ability in return. Learning about the ancient philosophies and cycles would allow for Marinette to recognize compatible wielders in the future if the time came for her to select someone.

They arrived home and Marinette tried to greet her parents but they were rushing around with a busy order, unable to properly greet their daughter. Marinette decided it would be better to stay out of their way until the rush had died down. Once they were in work mode it was hard to try to jump in and help out.

She headed upstairs with her kwamii and the two started to head up to their room, but Marinette paused as she glanced into the kitchen.

“Marinette?” Tikki was at the trap door waiting for her wielder. Marinette instead turned to the kitchen and went to the cupboard, pulling out the china cups and pot from the back of the cupboard and wiped the dust off of her old mug, looking at the apple blossom pattern.

“Did you know this is where I got my apple blossom pattern from?” she told Tikki who had floated down and peered at the cup.

“Really?”

“Yeah, Mamam got it for me when I was younger. How about we have some tea right now?”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Tikki beamed and Marinette smiled. She washed the china and happily readied the tea, grabbing a couple cookies to munch on.

Marinette showed Tikki how her Mamam prepared the tea and set them out on the table, giggling as they ate, drank, and enjoyed the pleasant tea time together.


	4. Day 4: Affection

Marinette was proud of herself. She had finished her homework on time last night and went to bed at a decent hour, woke up early and got the list of school activities that were happening this week to inform the class about as class representative, and finished up the final sketches of one of her new outfits in the art room.

Everyone was starting to arrive so Marinette decided to wait for everyone in class, heading out of the art room with a smile. Just as she approached the door to the class though, a familiar voice called out to her.

“Marinette!” the young noirnette turned to see Rose running up to her in a rush, looking tired.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Um, ah, Juleka’s leggings are ripped!”

“Isn’t that the design though?” Marinette questioned.

“No, um, on the sides where the stitching goes. She needs help in the locker room right now!”

“Is it that bad?” Marinette asked worriedly, wondering just how large the rip was.

“It’s terrible!” Rose exclaimed.

“Well, I have a small sewing kit in my backpack, I’ll go grab it from the classroom and head down there.”

“No! I’ll get your sewing kit! You go check out the damage! To assess it!” Rose herded Marinette away from the door and down the stairs before the small blonde ran back up the stairs to grab the kit. Marinette stared after her curiously before shrugging and heading into the locker rooms where she found Juleka and Mylene sitting there talking anxiously.

“I’m here to check out your legging,” Marinette smiled.

“It’s right here,” Juleka pointed to the tear on her legging and Marinette frowned,

“What happened? It looks like someone purposely grabbed it and tore it,” Marinette pulled out the few loose strings on there.

“I was… trying to put them on. And then I wasn’t paying attention and I heard a rip but I didn’t think much of it until now.”

“Well it is pretty big, but thankfully this thread is still intact so I can quickly fix it without any trouble,” Marinette comforted the goth girl who smiled softly. Rose returned with the kit and within a few minutes it was all patched up.

“Thank you, Marinette,” Juleka said softly. Marinette smiled and started to leave as Rose and Juleka looked at the stitching.

“Where are you going?” Mylene asked Marinette.

“I need to put my kit away, so I’ll see you in class,” she waved before walking out the door, not hearing them try to call her back. Just as she approached the class room again, Alix popped out, startling her to jump back.

“Marinette! I need your help!”

“With what?”

“The art room! It’s a mess!”

“But I was just in there not too long ago and it was perfectly fine-” Marinette frowned but Alix pushed her to the art room anyway. They went inside to find it just the same as Marinette had left it earlier.

“Where’s the problem?”

“Um… The paint bottles are out of order! They always need to be put back in the correct position. You should do that right now before anyone makes the mistake of not checking before they use it, I need to go talk to the art teacher and find out why this keeps happening.”

“Okay?” Marinette agreed in confusion. They never have tried to reorganize the paints since they were going to get messed up anyway. And for Alix to be so worried about it despite not even using these paints was weird. Maybe Alix was getting more involved in other aspects of art and wanted to help out

Marinette had organized the bottles once before so it was easy for her to put them back in their original spots, the two finishing in no time.

As she went back to the classroom to finally put away her sewing kit, Alya jumped out, blocking her way.

“What now?” Marinette sighed. “I just want to put this away.”

“Adrien’s in the library right now, it’s a perfect opportunity to go talk to him,” the reporter urged.

“But I want to put away my kit and talk to the class about the upcoming events. Class is going to start soon and I want write out the plans on the board,” Marinette tried to get into the classroom but Aly wouldn’t let her.

“How about I grab your sewing kit and write everything on the board while you get Adrien and everyone else who’s not here right now in class?”

“Who else isn’t in class?” Marinette went to peek inside to see who she needed to grab but Alya blocked her way.

“Just go and look! There’s bound to be someone else!” she pushed the young heroine away after snatching the sewing kit. Marinette was about to go back into class to check when Alya rushed her away.

“Go get Adrien!” Alya pressured and Marinette finally caved in, going downstairs.

“Something’s wrong,” Marinette said quietly, opening up her purse and glancing down at Tikki who peered up at her.

“Do you think it’s an akuma?”

“Why would an akuma not want me to go in the room? It doesn’t make sense. I’ll just find Adrien and tell him to grab everyone else before going back to class. It’s my responsibility as class representative to make sure everything is alright in class.”

“Good idea!” Tikki encouraged as Marinette entered the library, finding Adrien widly looking for something. She took a deep breath and approached him.

“Hey, Adrien. Alya said-”

“Great timing!” Adrien interrupted, looking panicked. “I need help looking for a book!”

“Can’t we do that at lunch? Class is going to start soon,” Marinette asked.

“It’s a really important book, please?” he asked pleadingly and Marinette looked into his soft green eyes, her heart melting.

“You’re fine- THAT’s fine. Let’s just make this quick. What book is it?” she asked.

“Famous Artists of the Impressionist Movement,” Adrien said.

“I just returned that book not too long ago! It should be right around…” Marinette walked to the next aisle and easily found the book, “Here!”

She happily handed Adrien the book who didn’t seem at all relieved.

“I have to get to class, so if you can let everyone know class is starting soon that will be great,” Marinette went to leave.

“Wait! I need help looking for another book!”

“I need to get to class, Adrien,” Marinette said, starting to get slightly annoyed.

“Please?”

“How about I help you at lunch? I know you probably have a photoshoot, so you can ask the librarian to find it for you right now so you can pick it up at lunch before leaving. I really need to go,” Marinette hurried out the door and Adrien went after her in a panic, not ready for her to leave so soon. He tried to stutter out more excuses but Marinette was already determined to get to class.

“Wait don’t go in!” Adrien called out as Marinette entered the classroom to find everyone setting up a ton of stuff, the classroom covered in pink petals and a large stack of objects on Marinette’s table.

“What’s going on here?” Marinette gaped and everyone turned to look at her in terror.

“Kim! What happened to keeping watch?” Alix snapped.

“I got distracted with the petals!” he retorted.

“And we were so close too,” Nino sighed before giving a sheepish smile to Marinette, “Surprise?”

“For what?”

“It’s for you,” Marinette looked behind her to see Adrien standing there with the same expression as Nino.

“Why for me?”

“You’ve helped us so much during this school year and last week during Hero’s Day we realized that we haven’t done anything in return. I know that you don’t expect anything in return whenever you help us, but since we celebrated Hero’s Day already, we decided to celebrate our own hero, you,” Alya said.

“Me?”

“You’ve always been so helpful and supportive of us that we forget to appreciate you and show you how much you really mean to us,” Mylene smiled.

“And the best way to show you how much you mean to us we decided to give back to you,” Ivan said quietly and everyone smiled happily.

“Thank you, Marinette!” everyone cheered at once and ushered her inside, showing her the gifts they got her that were piled on her table. They all excitedly watched her open them and as they described their gift to her, Marinette beamed at all of the affection she felt for her friends just as they felt for her in return.


	5. Day 5: Garden

There was always some form of plant on Marinette’s balcony. When she was younger her mother put the small bonsai there for it to grow out in the sunshine. Marinette decided it was lonely and put some lavender next to it, keeping the bonsai company and diligently made sure they were well kept. The roses and little ivy soon followed after once Sabine could tell Marinette could handle her rooftop garden.

Marinette was content, enjoying her small balcony and the sweet smells it brought from the lavender and roses as she would sketch or read.

When becoming Ladybug though, Marinette felt that something was missing from the small garden balcony but couldn’t tell what it was. She had been happy with everything before, but why was she no longer satisfied now? She rearranged the plants, adjusted the lounge chair, and even added more decorations to see how she felt, but nothing would stick.

“Why don’t you try looking for another plant?” Tom suggested at dinner when Marinette expressed her concern. She wondered to herself if that’s what was missing and went out with Tikki to the nursery to browse the next day.

The flowers were lovely and had a fragrant smell as she walked around. Tikki fluttered through the plants as she checked them out alongside her wielder.

Marinette spotted a soft red flower and bent down to examine it. She brought her nose close and gave an experimental sniff when something landed on her face. With a shriek, Marinette flailed back and tripped over a pot behind her falling on her rump rather painfully. As she rubbed it, the florist chuckled.

“They like to do that a lot. Scares everyone the first time they sniff the geraniums,” he hummed and Marinette blinked owlishly as the thing on her face flew off, landing on the flower again innocently. The black spots seemed bright in the sunlight and Marinette couldn’t help but smile as she got up and peered at the ladybug.

“Do they like these flowers?” she asked and the florist nodded.

“One of their favorite flowers to hang out on, which are perfect if you have an aphid problem but don’t want to grow any pungent plants in your yard. Grow a geranium and the ladybugs will handle the rest.”

“May I buy it?” Marinette asked and the florist smiled brightly.

“Of course, anything else you’re interested in?” he asked.

“No, just this one is perfect,” Marinette picked up the geranium and handed it to the florist while Tikki slipped into her bag.

“Enjoy then, Lady Luck. You’ll be getting a lot of good fortune with these flowers by your side,” he chuckled. Marinette smiled, eyes flashing with a secret.

“I’ll cherish them wisely then,” she grinned and started to head out, but not before looking down at her purse to see Tikki give her a wink, closing the purse with a tinkling giggle.


	6. Day 6: Creation

Alya bobbed her head to Jagged Stone’s music as Marinette worked on the dress she was making for the former. The young reporter checked out her friend who had her mouth in a thin line as she pinched a couple of needles and thread in her mouth. It was amazing that despite how notoriously clumsy the designer was, her fingers were nimble when working with the needle and thread. There was only a few times that Alya noticed when Marinette pricked herself, but other than that it was a pain free process. Except for the fact that Alya had been standing for the past hours while Marinette adjusted the dress.

“Are you almost finished down there?” Alya grinned as Marinette jolted from her work mode, most likely thinking about what to adjust or fix.

“Yeah, just the last couple of stitches. This is one of my better works yet. I’m surprised you wanted your dress to resemble Carapace though seeing how you would probably be better suited for Ladybug or Rena Rogue based on their colors and your skin tone," she mumbled through her needle-filled mouth.

“I know, but I feel like Carapace could use some more spotlight when we go to the party. Most people dress up as Ladybug anyway so I wouldn’t really be really unique. The only thing that would’ve been special is that I had mine tailored to me by the most artistic designer ever,” Alya said proudly while Marinette blushed.

Alya always supported Marinette in her work just as the designer did with the Ladyblog. She could see the clear talent that Marinette had and wanted to show it off to the world, the Miraculous themed party that Chloe was hosting being the perfect chance to. Not only was it a great way to show off the dress, it would be a perfect post for the Ladyblog to further advertise Marinette's skill.

“Who are you going to be dressed as?” Alya asked Marinette as she finished up, looking content.

“I was thinking either Chat Noir or Rena Rogue. I can’t really go as Queen Bee since we know who will get furious if anyone else is dressed as her,” Marinette rolled her eyes and Alya agreed with a huff in response. Chloe would undeniably get upset if someone else tried to dress as Queen Bee.

“Why not Ladybug? I think you would look great in red,” Alya complimented but Marinette seemed adamant on her choice.

“Like you said, everyone’s going to be Ladybug. I’ll just get lost in the crowd.”

“That would be pretty funny if you went as Ladybug though. Marinette, the champion of the class clumsiest, dressed as Ladybug,” Alya playfully joked and Marinette giggled.

“That would be something worth seeing,” Marinette agreed before getting off her knees with a grunt after having been on them for a while. “All done! Go check it out!”

Alya went to the mirror and gaped at the dress. Since the normal Carapace colors would’ve clashed with her red hair, Marinette used a dark forest green and soft gold that matched her hazel eyes, making them stand out. It was a lovely short A-line dress that dipped into a low V at her chest yet wasn't too revealing in anyway. Alya was surprised to find that she even got down plated pattern on Carapace's chest.

“It’s perfect, girl. Thank you so much!” Alya pulled her friend into a bone crushing hug and the two giggled as their hair tickled one another before pulling back.

“I’m going to proudly show off this dress and tell them that this amazing creation was made by none other than my girl Marinette herself. You’re going to get a ton of attention after that party. Who knows, maybe Adrien might ask you to make him something. I think he would look great as Chat Noir, pursonally,” Alya snickered and once more twirled around as she admired the dress, not hearing the designer’s annoyed mutter of yet another person in her life making ridiculous puns.


	7. Day 7: Side Effects

After finally managing to break away from her friends, Marinette rushed to find a isolated part in the mall while an akuma raged about.

“An animal lover? Did they get taken from the zoo too early for comfort?” Marinette said as she ducked underneath a shoe thrown by a monkey hanging on a sign above one of the shops in the mall. From what it looked like, this akuma could turn people into animals to cause havoc around Paris. The akuma had flown quickly into the mall, cackling as they turned unsuspecting shoppers into animals, then continued on to find more people as animals now rampaged about.

“An upset child is always a perfect victim for Hawkmoth,” Tikki sighed once Marinette took cover in the empty bathroom.

“Looks like we’ll have to round them up then. Tikki, spots on!” she summoned the kwami and felt her familiar suit form around her.

Ladybug bolted out of the bathroom and back into the chaotic mall where animals were still causing trouble. Luckily, no more civilians were in the mall having already escaped, leaving the animals to destroy the shops and make a mess that could easily be cleaned up after the fight.

Ladybug yoyo-ed her way out of the mall and ran along the rooftops, looking for the source of trouble. She spotted a disturbance up ahead and raced towards it. As she hurried toward the fight, a scream caught her attention and she looked down to see a panther trying to get into a car where a terrified family hid.

She dropped down and threw her yoyo at the panther’s leg, pulling it toward her. The husband in the car realized what Ladybug was doing and took the chance to reverse the car, getting further away. The panther turned to Ladybug now and lunged, causing the heroine to yelp and duck. She could feel the large claws try to grab her but she evaded it with an expert yank of her yoyo still wrapped around its' leg.

Ladybug retracted her yoyo and was ready to throw it at the panther’s nose to startle it until getting roughly tackled from behind. She crashed forward and managed to turn around enough to see a tiger bite down on her neck harshly.

The suit took most of the pain but Ladybug still grunted as the fangs bore onto her neck. She went to hit the tiger with the yoyo when the panther came over and grabbed her leg, trying to drag her away and thus distracting the spotted hero.

The two large cats growled and yanked on Ladybug as they tried to claim their prey, all the while hurting their captive. Ladybug panicked, starting to realize that there was no way out as the tiger sat on top of her upper body to hold her down and prevent her from being dragged off. Her arms were crushed and she couldn't fight back at all.

As if responding to that panic, her body went oddly limp and she slumped down. The panther’s grip slipped away and the tiger now paused, sniffing the heroine who didn’t stir.

“Let go of her!” she heard a metal clang and the tiger screeched. It got off of her quickly as the metal clanging continued until the large cats had dashed away, not liking the noise.

She heard footsteps and Chat Noir pulled Ladybug carefully into her arms, panicking.

“My Lady! Are you alright?”

“Ah, yeah,” she slowly started to move again, weakly testing her limbs.

“Are you hurt? You went limp all of the sudden as I went to go help you and I thought-” Ladybug could see the distraught expression on Chat’s face.

“I’m fine, Chaton. My body just stopped responding for some reason. I don’t know why though,” she frowned, slowly sitting up and balling her hands into tight fists before stretching them out curiously. “It’s as if I gave up fighting.”

“Maybe you were playing dead?” Chat Noir guessed. Ladybug looked at him curiously.

“Play dead?”

“Some animals are known for freezing up and not moving when panicked, such as ladybugs. Maybe it was an internal reaction you had. I sometimes get those as well both inside and out of the suit.”

“You do?” Ladybug asked with a bemused smile.

“Yeah. It’s kind of hard to not lay in the sun and sleep at home or purr when I’m content.”

“So that was a purr last time!” Ladybug exclaimed excitedly, recalling that time with Prime Queen when she had thought she heard him purr on the metro. Chat Noir’s face went pink.

“We should really get on that akuma! Up you go!” he pulled up Ladybug quickly, hiding his embarrassment while she giggled.

“I think it’s rather cute, Chaton,” Ladybug said fondly. He shook his head, cheeks still pink and tail twitching.

“Let’s just go after that akuma,” he mumbled.

“And miss a purr-fect opportunity to talk about our Miraculous?” Ladybug snickered.

“Now you make a pun only to mock me? I’m wounded, My Lady,” Chat Noir grumbled, ears going flat on his head. Ladybug giggled and scratched his head, making him lean into her hand.

“I would never mock you, Chat Noir.” Ladybug smiled as she stopped petting him and threw her yoyo, feeling it snag onto a building letting it pull her away, “That would be completely unpurr-fessional.”

“Hey!” Chat Noir yelled as she flew off, laughing.


	8. Day 8: Partners

Marinette glanced around as she got to her locker with a frown. Alya hadn’t greeted her at the entrance of school which was rather unusual of her. Usually the Ladyblogger tried to get to school early rather than dealing with the loud mornings with her other sisters.

Just as she wondered about her friend, Marinette’s phone beeped. She pulled out her phone and read the message from Alya saying that she wasn’t going to make it today, her sisters getting her sick.

Marinette smiled sympathetically, recalling how certain Alya was to not get sick since they had a project coming up. Today was the day they would be assigned into pairs and Alya didn’t want to miss it. Unfortunately it looked like her sisters had other plans for her.

“Alya’s not coming today?” Adrien was waiting for Marinette as she closed her locker while assuring her friend she could pass the information from the project along.

Marinette jumped in surprise with a yelp, her phone flying out of her hand. Adrien caught it before it could fall face down onto the ground and break.

“Sorry, I need to stop doing that,” Adrien apologized sheepishly.

“No, it’s fine! I get scared easily,” Marinette said as Adrien handed back her phone.

“So are you going to do the project with Alya?”

“Yeah, I can just send her the information about it after class. Are you going to pair up with Nino?”

“Yeah, we usually seem to do that. I wonder what Ms. Bustier has in store for us today? Her projects are always interesting,” Adrien said and Marinette agreed as they went to class when the bell rang.

Nino waved as the two came in and greeted Adrien while Marinette got seated.

“Good morning, Mari. Ready for the project today?” Nino asked and Marinette nodded.

“It’s sad that Alya couldn’t be here. It seemed like she really wanted to come today to get started on it. With Hawkmoth more active, she’s out reporting all of the time which takes away from her school time.”

“She told me about that as well. It looks like she’s been tired recently which made her more susceptible to the cold her sisters got,” Nino sighed.

“On the plus side she can get the break she needs today,” Adrien said and the other two nodded before turning their attention to Ms. Bustier as the teacher entered the classroom.

“I know you’re all nervous so I’ll tell you about the project now before continuing with the rest of announcements,” Ms. Bustier said and everyone shuffled nervously in their seats.

“So for this project I want to have people pair into groups that can benefit the other. You’re going to choose a hobby you like to do or a skill you have and partner with someone that can promote yourself to either see another point of view or improve on your current level of expertise. For example, let’s say you like baking. A perfect partner to pair with would be Marinette since she lives in a bakery. She can teach you other ways to make something or show you a new recipe to make. So I want you to first write what your hobby is and where you are at currently with it as well as what you learned through the project. You can bring something in before you started working on the project and then something after you both finish working together so we can see your improvement. I’ll give you the chance to decide who you want to partner with now.”

Marinette sat there, now completely unsure of who to partner with. The only person that would be able to help her would be Adrien since he’s a model and he could teach her about a different realm of fashion, but what could she give back in return? He plays basketball, fences, knows Chinese (which could also be a way to help her improve), and plays piano, none which she was knowledgeable with.

There was a tap on her shoulder and Marinette looked to see Nathaniel there.

“Hey, Marinette. I was thinking we could partner up for this project. You’re really good at drawing clothes which could help me improve on my different outfits and I could show you different art styles or maybe just give you inspiration for another design. How does that sound?” he asked.

Marinette beamed, “That sounds great! I wasn’t sure who to partner with myself. Thanks for coming up to me.”

“So partners?” Nathaniel asked.

“Partners,” Marinette agreed and the two smiled at each other in excitement, ready to improve on their work.


	9. Day 9: Dreams

“Do you have any dreams, My Lady?” Chat Noir asked as the two heroes chilled on top of one of the Parisian rooftops.

“Dreams?” Ladybug wondered aloud, looking at her legs in front of her, ankles crossed as she leaned back comfortably. She didn’t want to give too much personal information about herself, but she at least wanted to tell her partner something about her life. He deserved that much for always being her support in desperate times.

“I’ve always dreamed of making something. You know, creating something with my own hands and being able to show the world what I could do. I like keeping my hands busy and getting them dirty. I could never imagine sitting in an office doing work.”

“Would you ever want your work to get out there in the world? Have people see what you can do?” Chat asked. Ladybug couldn’t tell him that she already had; having worked with Jagged Stone twice now and even noticed by Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgeois, two of the huge names out in the fashion world. For her the experience with such well known people was an amazing feeling to have, making her excited to know that her work was respected.

“Well, it is a nice thought to get my name out there and have people all around the world recognizing me. But I think working with the people around me and having the personal connections with my customers makes it such a wonderful experience. I guess you can say that’s my dream, seeing the genuine reaction and happiness of my work.”

“That’s really meaningful,” Chat Noir said, staring out into the setting sun.

“What about you? What are your dreams?”

“I… I would like not having any restrictions with what I do. Like now. I enjoy these moments we can just talk and relax after an akuma or a patrol, or hanging out with my friends at school. I want to go out there and find stuff that I want to do without any expectations on me. I know that’s not as amazing as yours, but it’s where I can be me.”

“I think that’s a valid dream to have,” Ladybug smiled.

“Really?” Chat Noir asked, ears perked up hopefully. 

“Some of us struggle with who we are and who we want to be, and society puts pressure on us to fit into a mold we might not want to be in. So breaking that mold is an amazing dream. You should be who you want to be, Chaton. Find out what makes you happy and keep on living that dream.”

“You sound like a wise sage,” Chat Noir smiled warmly, eyes staring at her softly before looking out into the sky. Ladybug shifted into a cross legged position as she followed his gaze.

“I guess Master Fu is starting to rub off on me,” she grinned and he chuckled.

“He really is one of those wise old turtle sages,” he commented and Ladybug agreed with a giggle. The two relaxed back again and chatted some more as the sun sank low and the stars twinkled above.


	10. Day 10: Video Games

“Marinette, I have a proposal for you,” Max said as he stood in front of Marinette’s table where the designer was sitting. She looked up from her notebook curiously.

“Let’s hear it,” she smiled.

“You’re very good at Ultimate Mecha Strike III and there is a small tournament for it coming up soon. I’ve always tried to win but there’s one player that ends up beating everyone and has been the current champion for some time now. I propose that if you can assist me with training to win this competition, I can offer you some of the prize money in compensation.”

“I don’t need prize money in compensation. I can just show you for free. Think of it like us hanging out rather than training.”

“Really?” Max asked in amazement.

“Of course! Just let me know when you want to come over and we can play. Maybe my dad can even join in too since he’s the one that really got me into all of this.”

“That’s a brilliant idea. Can I come by later today at lunch with Kim?”

“Sure!” Marinette smiled. Max looked pleased with this answer and went back to Kim where the two of them began chatting about it. Marinette gave them a warm glance before turning back to the front as class started.

 

When lunch came around, Marinette and the two boys headed to her place. They greeted her parents who were happy to see different faces, offering lunch to the guests. After thanking the adults the three headed upstairs and sat down on the couch, setting up the game.

“So what do you want to work on?” Marinette asked.

“I always struggle with that one combo that he uses. This one,” Max pulled out a video and showed Marinette the champion’s famous combo plus a few more.

“Oh, I know that one! I can help you with that,” she said and the two started playing, Marinette giving advice when to dodge and what techniques to use to fight back. Sabine came up with lunch after a while and the tree talked and ate before heading back to school.

“Can we come back today after school for a bit? I still want to try that one move you showed me,” Max said as they all got seated.

“I’m free today so you can head over,” Marinette agreed.

“This is great, Marinette!” Alix said as she approached the group, holding up her phone. Marinette watched a video of her and Max playing, the former giving advice to the latter.

“You guys were really good so I wanted to show Alix,” Kim shrugged when Marinette gave him a look.

“Could you show me that move? I’ve never done it before when I played,” Alix said and Marinette glanced at Max who nodded in approval.

“Sure, you can come over today after class.”

“Can I bring along Nathaniel? He’s always wanted to draw a scene relating to video games for a new concept in his story.”

“I don’t mind. It’s good that he’s getting out there with new ideas so I won’t stop him,” Marinette smiled.

“Dude, you guys playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III? Can I watch?” Nino asked. Marinette blinked in surprise at the increasing audience.

“Of course, it’s open for anyone,” Marinette offered, not realizing the consequences of that line.

“I’d like to go to then, girl! It’s always a blast to see you out doing something else,” Alya smiled.

“Can we go then? I always liked to watch you guys play like at the tournament!” Rose piped in and Juleka nodded in agreement.

“Ivan and I are free so we can watch for a bit too, and it would be nice to also get some homework done with others there while we’re at it,” Mylene chimed in.

“I don’t have a photoshoot until later so I could come watch for a bit,” Adrien smiled.

Marinette slightly paled at the amount of people that all agreed to go, so she texted her parents a quick warning that there was going to be a lot of company coming by for video games later. The bakers were excited to find out that even more people were coming over and Tom eagerly got snacks ready while Sabine cleaned upstairs. The couple happily waited as the bell rang and smiled when seeing the door open and Marinette enter. Their smiles faltered when more and more kids entered after their daughter, waving enthusiastically to the bakers while heading upstairs, causing a small thunder as they ascended into their home.

“I think we’re going to need more croissants,” Tom said and Sabine agreed.


	11. Day 11: Guardian

“You’re going abroad for three weeks?” Marinette panicked, nearly knocking over her tea. She managed to catch it while staring at Master Fu in horror.

“I need to meet with a friend of mine I haven’t seen in a long time. Despite the advances of technology and communication, he never decided to get a phone. The only way I can get in contact with him is by meeting with him in person. As the next Guardian, I give you the duty to guard the Miraculous while I’m gone. You can come by tonight and pick up the gramophone so that way it doesn’t look conspicuous. I’ve also noticed that you and Chat Noir as low on power ups so it would be beneficial for you to make some of those while I’m gone.”

“You’re having me make them? But I’m not ready to make them!”

“Marinette, you’ve seen me make them several times and have helped with them before. I trust that you’ll be able to do with no difficulty.”

“Are you sure?” Marinette asked doubtfully.

“Positive. Even though you do not see it yet, you are ready for the job. Imagine this as a practice for the future. And Tikki will be there to help so don’t be worried about it,” Master Fu assured the young heroine.

Marinette hadn’t been convinced as she headed home for now, anxiously walking into her room before sitting on her chair by her desk.

“I know this is stressful for you-” Tikki started but Marinette interrupted her.

“This is very stressful for me! How does he expect me to be a Guardian right now? I’m nowhere close to getting the butterfly miraculous back from Hawkmoth and now I’m supposed to be protecting the rest? This is going to be a disaster!” Marinette wailed.

“Marinette! You’re a great ladybug wielder and we’re going to get the butterfly miraculous back! It just takes time. No one becomes a leader in a day. This is a big responsibility but that’s why we’re taking this slow. You’ll still be able to contact Master Fu while he’s gone and I know you’ll be able to protect the others with ease. Right now though, we need to make something to hide the miraculous box in so no one asks about it.”

“I can make a larger version of my diary box,” Marinette said and Tikki beamed. Marinette could always calm down when making something, which Tikki knew that was just the thing she needed.

“Perfect!” Tikki exclaimed and Marinette got to work, quickly making a container to hold the miraculous box. Marinette started to relax the more she focused on the work at hand, settling into the calming flow of work. 

Marinette came down to eat dinner with her parents before heading back up and finishing the box. She pulled away finally, satisfied with her work. Tikki patted her holder encouragingly before Marinette grabbed her backpack and transformed, quickly headed to Master Fu’s again for the second time. She detransformed a block away and walked to his shop, coming in quietly.

“Are you ready?” Master Fu asked and Marinette nodded quietly as he handed her the miraculous box. Despite it not being that large, it felt heavy in her hands.

Marinette put it away into her backpack, fumbling with the zipper slightly as she zipped up her backpack.

“This may be a daunting task for you, but know that you aren’t alone. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. It happens to everyone, I am no exception. Mistakes help us grow and become better versions of ourselves. You can do this, Ladybug,” Master Fu encouraged and Marinette nodded determinedly before heading out.

 

The next week Marinette got to work on the potions for her and Chat Noir’s power ups at Master Fu’s place since he had all the ingredients stored there. She made a mistake the first time when accidentally spilling some of it, but managed to make it after calming her nerves. Marinette and Tikki did a small victory dance when they finished, giddy with excitement.

“See! I knew you could do it!” Tikki smiled and Marinette cuddled happily with her kwami before continuing on, much more confident in herself. She stored them safely in the trap box that she had hid in the bottom of her large chest in her room to make it less conspicuous.

Marinette grew more relaxed as time went on and instead of feeling scared, grew more curious with the position of being a Guardian. She read some of the books Master Fu had left and asked Tikki questions who answered them to the best of her ability. Chat Noir also gave her support and encouraged her whenever she started to doubt herself, comforting her with the fact that he was truly there for her.

 

By the time Master Fu came back, Marinette had changed. The turtle wielder was happy to see the straight back and confidence in her movements as Marinette handed back the miraculous box that the younger Guardian realized wasn’t as heavy as she had originally thought.

“You’re looking well, Ladybug,” Master Fu complemented.

“I feel much better. Thank you for giving me this opportunity,” she said as the older man put the miraculous box back into the gramophone. “But I do have some questions,” she said and Master Fu smiled as the two got seated. The two Guardians began to discuss the miraculous while their kwamis watched with gentle smiles.

“She is already turning into an amazing Guardian, I cannot wait for what lies ahead of her. May her future always be bright,” Wayzz said and Tikki smiled down at her wielder in pride.

“Her future will be bright, since she is the one that will light the way,”


	12. Chapter 12: Phone Thief

“Really, Marinette?” Alya sighed, “Again?”

“It wasn’t me this time!” Marinette nearly shouted in the locker rooms. They had left the classroom just as lunch started, hurrying to the locker rooms to talk.

“First Adrien, then me, now Rose? What did Rose even do to you?”

“I said it wasn’t me!” Marinette tried to explain but Alya wasn’t having it. 

“If you stole Chloe’s I wouldn’t have minded…”

“ALYA-” Marinette’s screech was interrupted by the locker doors slamming open, said angry blonde storming in.

“Which of you two took my phone?” Chloe demanded. Alya gave Marinette a pointed look. Marinette sputtered.

“It wasn’t me! Look at my stuff!” Marinette opened her locker and showed her backpack and locker to the two girls. While they were looking, Marinette opened her purse and let Tikki hide in her blazer before presenting her Tikki-free purse to the girls as well.

“See, nothing but my wallet and- where’s my phone?” Marinette now asked. She quickly began to search through her bag only to turn up empty-handed. The three now stared at each other in surprise.

“Who else is missing their phones?” they turned as Adrien entered with the rest of the class.

“We three are, what about you guys?” Alya asked.

“Us too,” Nino frowned and the class stared at one another curiously.

“If this is some kind of prank it isn’t funny, Kim,” Alix growled.

The athlete in questioned turned around defensively to the skater, “And why do you think I would do something like this? This isn’t cool.”

“You and Max were talking about phones all secretly yesterday,” Alix started but Max interrupted.

“We were only talking about the most recent phone that just came out. I happened to get it and was showing Kim the video camera so we could have high resolution when recording Kim’s parkour and-”

“That doesn’t answer where my phone is!” Chloe snapped.

“Well, where does everyone last remember their phones?” Marinette asked. Everyone paused to think back to when they last had it.

“We just finished up our daily meditation with Ms. Bustier when Rose noticed her phone was gone,” Mylene said. “I remember because Rose had been talking about how she and Prince Ali had been emailing each other as pen pals and wanted to show us a picture of his palace on her phone after we got back from meditation but couldn’t find it so she thought she left it in her locker.”

“But it wasn’t there when I checked, so I looked in the bathroom but still didn't find it,” Rose said.

“And by the time lunch started that’s when everyone noticed their phones were missing. So we know the time the first phone vanished, but now what?” Alya asked.

“Did anyone leave meditation?” Adrien asked. Everyone once again paused as they recollected what happened.

“Nathaniel left, now that I think about it,” Ivan said. The class turned to face the quiet artist suspiciously. 

“I had a great idea for my story so I went to the lockers to jot it down in my notebook, that was all. You can ask Mirelle who saw me in there.”

“I’ll go ask her,” Alix said and left with Max and Kim.

“Was anyone outside of the classroom during meditation?” Ivan questioned. Once again the class lapsed into a thoughtful silence, trying to scavenge for any information that would benefit the mysterious case.

“I think I heard the door open while we were meditating, but it was so soft I thought it was another classroom father down.” Juleka sighed, “This is totally not cool.”

“Did anyone else hear it? Or maybe even footsteps?” Marinette looked at the rest of the class who remained as confused as she was.

“Wait,” everyone turned to face Sabrina. “I had my phone and Chloe’s phone on me during meditation because I remember how they were digging into my hips while we were sitting.”

“It was Alix! She was sitting right behind Sabrina! She must've taken it during class!” Chloe shouted but Mylene shook her head.

“Alix was too busy fixing her skates under the desk. I was watching her during class and I’m certain she didn’t get out of her seat at all.”

“So that means someone took them between meditation and before class ended,” Marinette frowned. This was a mysterious case for all of them to be missing their phones at the same time. “Could this be an akuma we’re dealing with?”

Just then the three returned slightly out of breath and all looking unnerved.

“We found the phones,” Kim panted, “and you’re not going to believe where.”

Everyone perked up and followed after the three of them, Kim leading the way. They hurried back to class where Kim went to the last row where Rose and Juleka sat, pointing behind it. Everyone looked at the phones and stood there in surprise.

“After we talked to Mirelle who did confirm that she saw Nathaniel, we were headed back when we saw Alya’s phone run on the ground into the class. We followed it to find most of the phones here. Now it looks like whoever took them put them all back by the time we got you guys,” Alix said as she picked up her own phone.

“What do you mean my phone ran?” Alya demanded as she picked up her own phone and inspected it suspiciously.

“It just, ran by on the floor. We thought it was an akuma so we searched the classroom but didn’t see anything,” Kim shrugged and grabbed his phone.

“Well I guess it’s okay then?” Nino followed suit and soon everyone grabbed their phones from the mysterious pile in the back. Marinette picked hers up and realized she had left her purse back in the locker room. As the warning bell rang for lunch to finish, she hurried back downstairs and pulled it out of her locker, not noticing the little black tail that looked like a belt slip into her backpack. 

Marinette let Tikki quickly slip back into her purse before running out the door, not wanting to be late. Inside her backpack there was a soft giggle and two little cat ears peeked out of the backpack, listening for anyone else so the coast was clear to go play some more games. Without Mama knowing of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was was a reference to jacquesthepigeon Chaton Doll AU on Tumblr and brought into popularity by Nobody Famous’ works, this is not my own idea. Go check out Nobody's other work because it's hands down amazing. Or should I say paws down? You can find Nobody at https://nobodyfamousposts.tumblr.com/ on Tumblr!


	13. Day 13-15: Akumanette, Restore and Support

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was only supposed to be one day but I ended up just going on a roll which fit the next two days perfectly, so it's three days in one! Enjoy!

Marinette took a shuddering breath, leaning back against her locker. She let herself slowly sink to the floor and did her best to exhale as calmly as she could. Instead she let out a broken sob which she muffled with her hand, hoping no one was in the area. Marinette felt her eyes burn and tears ran down her cheeks. This was too much.

Lila had done it again and this time it actually hurt. Marinette had been deflecting blow after blow from Lila and doing her best to remain positive around her classmates and try not to get in Lila’s way like Adrien said. She hadn't been calling out Lila's lies for a while and did her best to be friendly when in public. It took everything out of Marinette to maneuver around through school and stay under Lila's vindictive gaze.

But Lila had found way to strike. Marinette didn’t know how, but Lila had gotten into Marinette's emails and started criticizing the Ladyblog daily. Alya had been getting increasingly upset with this mysterious FashionQueen who had been ridiculing all of her hard work and effort. Meanwhile Marinette had been giving her full support and encouraged Alya report it and try to track the email down, leading right back to her unknowingly.

Alya confronted her but Marinette didn’t understand what was happening until going through her spam in her email to find hundreds of messages from the Ladyblog from not only Alya herself but also several other fans that had been supporting Alya. She didn’t even know how they got there at all but Alya wasn’t having any of it, too heartbroken to listen to Marinette.

It had been reported to the principal and now Marinette was suspended from school for a week until this was sorted out. Her father had come in an hour ago to talk to Principal Damocles about the issue and they both couldn't understand why Marinette would do such a thing, but the evidence pointed right at her. Marinette was too stunned to even try to protest and couldn't even think of a way to defend herself. In the end all that her dad said was that they would talk about this at dinner because he had already been away from the shop for long than expected. It looked like he wanted to say something else but instead simply sighed and left.

Marinette had gone back to class and could see the disbelief on everyone’s faces. Alya didn't even looking at her, tears brimming the reporter’s eyes. Marinette looked at Lila who smirked confidently.

Rather than rage filling her heart knowing what Lila had done, grief gripped her shoulders tightly and bore down on her body when she heard her best friend sniffle.

“I’m sorry, Alya. I hope you understand that I would never do this to you. I’m sorry,” she picked up her backpack, and without a glance at anyone else, left with her head bowed in shame.

Now she sat on the floor of the locker room trying to wipe away the tears. Her purse had been taken by her dad so she wouldn’t have access to her phone, which meant that Tikki wasn’t there with her to give her comfort. Marinette sobbed into her hand, desperately trying to stop crying and think happy thoughts. She couldn’t let herself be like this, not when-

“Poor little one. You just wanted to support your friend and now your being blamed for something you didn’t even do,” the voice softly whispered in her head. 

“Oh leave me alone!” Marinette snapped bitterly, clutching her head tightly and trying to get the negativity out of her mind.

“I can help you though. Get justice for who wronged you and help you with your friend. You and your friend shouldn't have to be forced apart through such cruel ways,” Hawkmoth coaxed. His voice sounded so soothing to hear despite Marinette knowing how dangerous he was. The way he managed to wrap everyone around his finger and was doing the same to Ladybug herself made her realize why so many were tempted. Justice sounded nice.

But this wasn't justice.

“I know what you’re doing,” Marinette sniffled. “And it’s not going to work. Not only will Ladybug and Chat Noir will stop you, I will never help you.”

“But it’s so hard for you isn’t it. All the hard work you’ve done to help your friend and now you’re nothing but a disappointment to them,” Hawkmoth sighed somberly, “How sad that even your parents are ashamed of you.”

“Get out of my head!” Marinette tried to get to the bathroom to hide, but ended up tripping on the bench and collapsing down to the floor. She stumbled up but didn’t get any farther, collapsing onto her knees as she tried to get Hawkmoth out of her head. The more he whispered the more tempting it sounded. Lila had been so cruel to her and it was agonizing to go day by day and act like it wasn't hurting her when it was. Just one time she could finally get what she wanted. Finally show Lila who was right. Finally let justice prevail over that sick and twisted-

“Leave me alone!” she pleaded, interrupting Hawkmoth's silver tongue.

“I’ll leave you alone if you help me,” Hawkmoth said coolly. There was a slight change in his voice, something that struck a nerve in her that was wrong. Fear overcame her as Hawkmoth persisted in her mind, invading her thoughts with temptations and trying to get her to help him, all for a simple task in return.

“Marinette?” she heard an uncertain voice.

“Leave me alone!” she sobbed and shook her head, holding it tightly.

“Marinette!” she felt hands on her and pulled back in fear, terrified thinking it was Hawkmoth. Instead Adrien was crouched there uncertainty, waiting for her to reach out to him.

“If you accept then I’ll let you go. You can do whatever you want,” Hawkmoth said smoothly. She realized that he wasn’t going to let her be free unless she complied. Adrien stood in front of her anxiously, trying to tell her to relax and calm down but his words reached deaf ears compared to Hawkmoth's swirling voice in her head.

“Fine,” Marinette growled and she felt the darkness wash over her. It was a cool feeling that bubbled over her, tickling her skin and causing the grief in her heart to relax before firing up. She felt the pain of the past weeks rear back and burst through, her demand for justice coursing through  her body and leaving that as the only emotion to thrive in the emptiness of her darkened mind.

“Marinette, no!” Adrien said butthe darkness already had consumed her.

The person that arose was wearing a brilliant scarlet dress with black lace layer over it, black blindfold covering her eyes. In one hand was a thin black sword that looked similar to that of a needle while scarlet scales were balanced in her other hand. Her hair was free from it's normal pigtails, gently clipped back in a red bow.

“Welcome, Lady Justice. With your powers you can- what are you doing?” Hawkmoth stopped as he watched Lady Justice put down her weapons and instead pull out her earring where the akuma was residing. Adrien watched with an equally shocked expression as she stomped on the earrings, shattering them and releasing the akuma.

Darkness washed over Lady Justice who returned to regular Marinette. Adrien caught her before she could crash down onto the floor, carefully setting her down and checking her face to see if the redness was gone from under her eyes that appeared when Hawkmoth attacked. Marinette stared at the broken earring, too tired to do anything. But there was a job to do, and she somehow had to fix this mess even if she couldn’t transform into Ladybug.

She gingerly picked up the broken pieces of the earring. Adrien helped her up and the two of them made their way to Marinette’s house silently. As they stood in front of her door, Adrien hesitated before pulling his friend into a hug.

“You’ll get through this, I know you will. I know you wouldn’t do such a thing so I’ll try to find out what happened. Call me if you need anything, okay?” Adrien asked and Marinette nodded glumly before heading inside.

She avoided her parents and slipped into her room quietly where Tikki was waiting.

“Oh Marinette,” Tikki crooned and Marinette sniffled, hot tears rising up to distort her vision again.

“Hawkmoth akumatized me,” she blurted. Tikki floated there in surprise.

“How did you break out?” Tikki asked.

“I broke the earring. But now I can’t turn into Ladybug and there’s an akuma flying around Paris now. I failed,” Marinette cried.

“You didn’t fail at all!” Tikki comforted. “You did what you had to do to get Hawkmoth away from you and I’m so proud you managed to do it! Right now we won’t worry about that akuma, we need to focus on you. Are you okay?”

“No,” Marinette sniffled. “Alya thinks I did it and now she won’t ever want to be my friend again. And both of my parents are upset with me and everyone at school will think I’m a terrible person.”

“We know that’s not true. We’ll get this resolved in no time, alright? You should talk to your parents first and try to have them reason with you. You can say your account got hacked and you don’t know how. We can’t point fingers at Lila because there’s no evidence she did it, but I’m pretty sure your parents would realize that you didn’t do this once you talk to them.”

“You’re right,” Marinette nodded. Tikki encouraged Marinette to wash her face and watch some funny cat videos until dinner time when her parents called her down to eat, Tikki comforting her before Marinette went downstairs.

 

It was a shorter discussion that she expected. Sabine was certain that Marinette would never do such a thing to her friend and Tom agreed. Tom apologized that he couldn’t talk more with her at school since he had to go help with the bakery, but he was going to support her in finding out what happened to her email and make a new one in the process. They gave her phone back and Marinette tried not to burst into tears again as they embraced her in a comforting hug then offered her some cookies to take upstairs to her room.

She ate them with Tikki before calling Master Fu and explaining the situation. Marinette babbled while the older man listened intently without interruption.

“That does seem a little troublesome, but I think we can manage,” Master Fu said over the phone.

“Really?” Marinette asked hopefully.

“One of the miraculous in the miraculous box has the ability to rewind time on whatever you touch which is helpful in battle. We can rewind the time of the earring and return it to it’s repaired state and then you can go out an purify the akuma.”

“I’ll be there in a bit,” Marinette said and hung up. She collected the pieces of her earring that she had and hurried silently out of the house, wishing she was Ladybug so she could swing her way to Master Fu’s instead of trying not to trip and catch her parents’ attention.

Thankfully there was no issue and Master Fu opened the door with a smile. When she walked into the warm room and pulled off her shoes, there was a cup of tea and a miraculous already waiting for her.

“You did well, Marinette. Not only did you resist Hawkmoth, you didn’t reveal anything to him. I’m very proud of you,” Master Fu smiled and Marinette was comforted by this. She now turned to the new kwami waiting for her, nibbling on some berries left out for Wayzz. 

“A rooster?” she asked.

“Hello! I’m Orikko! I’m here to help you with your miraculous!” the kwami chirped. Marinette couldn’t help but giggle at the cuteness of the kwami.

“But how does a rooster have the ability to rewind time?” Marinette asked.

“Everyone’s always wondering if it was the rooster of the egg that’s first, I guess you’ll have to rewind time to find out! My saying is Comb Up to transform and Comb Down to detransform. My ability activates when you say Roost! Whatever you touch will be put into an egg and their time rewound.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Marinette slipped on the hairpiece.

“Orikko, Comb Up!” she said and felt the transformation wash over her. With no time to waste she summoned her Roost and tapped the earring. They watched the earring get sucked into a egg and they waited with baited breath as a timer appeared on top of the egg. Marinette watched in fascination as the time ticked down, curious to see what would happen.

The egg cracked and they watched the cracks deepen until it fell apart just as the timer finished, the earring coming out as good as new. Everyone cheered and Marinette released her transformation, putting the earring back on.

“Now time to get an akuma!” Marinette smiled at Tikki who nodded. The two hurried out and Ladybug was back in action, launching herself into the night sky with a smile.

 

Marinette woke up to her alarm ringing. She jumped out of bed, freaking out that she was late for school having gone to bed late last night after she searched for the akuma. She successfully found it and purified it without a problem but now felt drained from lack of sleep the night before. But knowing that the akuma had been restored and there was nothing Hawkmoth related to worry about at the moment invigorated her to start the day on a positive note.

Halfway between getting dressed, Marinette realized that she was still suspended, causing her to wilt. She wondered what she would even do with her day when her phone went off.

Marinette curiously picked it up to see not only several text messages from Adrien the night before while she was searching for the akuma, but there were also many more from her other classmates. She glanced over her classmates texts to see words of support and comfort, knowing that she wouldn't something like this and hoping she would be back soon. Only Alya hadn't messaged her.

Marinette blinked when her phone started to buzz in her hand. Adrien’s number popped up to her surprise as he called her. She stood there for a long second before finally picking it up.

“Hello?”

“Marinette!” Adrien exhaled in relief. “You weren’t replying all yesterday and I got really worried. We have good news!”

“We?” Marinette questioned, sitting down on her chair. Tikki tiredly got up at the noise and floated down to cuddle into her holder’s neck. Marinette started to absentmindedly rub her head while she focused on Adrien.

“So I thought that something was strange was going on so I got Max to help me by finding out how your email got hacked. Max deducted the someone may have through the school computers. We checked every computer in the library to find nothing out of the ordinary except for one computer that had its history completely erased, as if someone was trying to hide something.”

“I had to use my email at school a while ago for a project,” Marinette gasped in realization.

“Exactly! Here, Max wants to explain so I’ll put him on speaker,” Adrien paused and Marinette held her phone tightly in her hand, no longer rubbing Tikki as she listened with rapt attention.

“Hello, Marinette, sorry about all that happened to you. Adrien told me and I knew you would never do something like that to Alya so I wanted to help, especially after you helped Markov. Anyway, I managed to locate the cookies that store information in the computer and used that to restore the previous history in the computer. That allowed us to log into your email and see the junk and spam mail where all the messages from the Ladyblog were stored. One email in the spam folder was from the first time they logged into your account and created the Ladyblog username under your email address. Normally you can go anonymous for the Ladyblog but it looks like whoever did this wanted to put you as the culprit so they purposely made an account and would only log in at the library so it couldn’t be traced back to them.”

Adrien excitedly butted in, “But if you look at the day and time the email was sent from the timestamp on the email, it’s clear evidence it couldn’t have been you! The verification email from the Ladyblog sent to your email was the same time we were hanging out at the park celebrating Nathaniel and Marc’s new comic release. You had been with us the entire time which can be proven by all of the pictures Alya took that day to celebrate! There are time stamps on every photo and they were at the exact same time that the verification email for the Ladyblog was sent to your email from the library. And you couldn’t have been in two places at once so it couldn’t be you! We just had Nathaniel go get Marc and Principal Damocles as well as Alya so we can prove it, we’ll call you when we sort everything out.”

Marinette had been trying not to cry in happiness the entire time, covering her mouth as she listened to them. She was overwhelmed with how much they wanted to help her and relieved that they had managed to prove her innocence.

“Thank you so much,” she managed to whisper through her throat that was tight with emotion.

“We’re your friends. We’ll always be here to support you,” Adrien said and Marinette closed her eyes as she soaked in the warmth from his voice. He hung up as Nathaniel returned but comforted her that they would call back right away when everything was sorted out.

“So they’re getting it sorted out?” Tikki asked and Marinette nodded. Tikki encouraged Marinette to go downstairs and eat something just in case she had to go to school today. She managed to eat some fruit and toast despite the anxiety fluttering in her stomach before heading into the bakery to tell her parents what had happened. They were excited to hear that she could be proven innocent and let her help out in the shop to get her mind off of things.

When Adrien called back an hour later Marinette rushed out of the bakery, heading upstairs as she picked up the call.

“We did it!” Adrien said excitedly. Marinette sank onto the couch in relief.

“What happened?” she asked.

“We showed Principal Damocles the email and Alya showed us all the pictures with the timestamps and Principal Damocles realized that we were right and you couldn’t have been at school when you were with us the entire time. Everyone that was at the park celebrating that day is also backing you up as witnesses. He said that he’ll call your parents to let them know you can come to school tomorrow.”

“Thank you so much, Adrien,” Marinette smiled into her phone.

“Anything for you, everyday Ladybug,” Adrien said and Marinette couldn’t help but giggle.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at school then. Thank you for your help,” Marinette thanked him again.

“You're welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow, Marinette,” she could feel him smiling on the other side of the phone before he hung up. Marinette rushed downstairs and excitedly told her parents who were joyous and relieved she wasn’t in any trouble. Tikki was also just as happy and spirited, relaxing on her holder’s shoulder when Marinette went upstairs to finish up a design back to her vigorous self and ready to face tomorrow.

 

Marinette got to school the next day feeling uncertain how Alya would react. She hesitated at the steps of the entrance but a nudge from her purse encouraged her to take a deep breath and march forward. The only way she would be able to fix this is to confront it face on. She knew it was silly to hide from Alya even though she was innocent, but Marinette was still afraid of how their friendship would be affected by this. Alya had thought she lost her best friend which would be something hard to get over. Marinette figured this wouldn’t be resolved within a day.

She got to class to see a few students already inside hanging out, Alya privately talking with Nino at their desks while Rose and Mylene chatted with Juleka at another table. The couple looked up when spotting her from their peripheral vision and Marinette gripped her backpack straps in worry when they fell silent, looking uncertain. The other girls noticed the conversation next to them dwindle and perked up, seeing Marinette. There was a silent pause before Mylene piped up,

“Good morning, Marinette!” Mylene smiled brightly. Marinette broke into a smile full of relief.

“Good morning, Mylene,” she replied kindly. Everyone else relaxed and greeted Marinette happily. With that encouragement, Marinette fully entered the classroom and put her backpack down, looking at Alya uncertainly.

“I’m sorry,” the two girls said in unison. They both chuckled bashfully.

“I’ll go first,” Alya said and motioned Marinette to sit down. Nino put on his head phones and started playing some music and Marinette couldn’t help but notice everyone at the table over started talking louder, as if to ignore the two of them.

“I’m sorry for doubting you. I should’ve known you would never do something like that. You’re my best friend and you’ve always been there to support me no matter what. Nothing could change that,” Alya held Marinette’s hands in her own and Marinette squeezed them.

“It’s okay, there was a lot of evidence that made it look like I did it so I understand why you would think that. I’m just happy it’s over now. I’m sorry that you had to go through something like this and I want you to know I would never _ever_ do something like that. You’re my best friend and like you said, nothing could change that. Not even Nino,” she smiled as Alya laughed, quickly dabbing her eyes that started to form tears.

“I think even Nino knows he can’t get between us,” Alya said and Marinette giggled. They pulled each other into a tight hug, both happy that the deep bond they shared was restored.


	14. Day 16 & 17: Triumph and Failure

“You never know until you try,” Tom had always told her when she was young and afraid of messing up. Marinette sat at her desk recollecting this with a frown. She fiddled with the hem of her shirt while she contemplated her decision. For close to a year now Marinette had been trying and failing to make it work but had never approached this directly before. But now it seemed like it was the only way.

“I never hesitate,” Kagami’s words echoed in her mind. Marinette was hesitating for far too long now. This wasn’t going to benefit her at all waiting for something to happen when she should be the one to take action.

Determination cemented itself into her as she picked up her school bag and purse, Tikki already nestled inside sleeping peacefully. Marinette would get slightly jealous of her kwami on days like these where they had been up late fighting akuma. Tikki could nestle safely into Marinette’s purse while Marinette had to get up and deal with the constant stress of school.

Speaking of stress.... Marinette spotted her target of the day. Nino had thankfully just left to go talk to Alya about something, leaving Adrien alone. This time Marinette wasn’t going to go any roundabout way to get his attention. She was going to do it right now.

“Good morning, Adrien,” Marinette called out and the blond turned to face her with a brilliant smile. Abort abort this was a terrible idea-

“Good morning, Marinette! Did you sleep well last night?”

“For the most part. The akuma last night though didn’t help at all though,” Marinette said and Adrien nodded in agreement, his gorgeous locks bouncing with him. How could he be so elegant while nodding his head? This was unfair and he was way too amazing and handsome that such small movements made him look so- FOCUS.

“By the way, I remembered you said you haven’t been to the movies and I thought it would be nice to go. Are you free to go sometime?”

“Really?” Adrien asked excitedly and Marinette could melt at the joy in his expression.

“Of course! You can just let me know when you can and we can both go together.”

“That’s great! I would love to!” Adrien beamed and pulled out his phone, “I’ll talk to Natalie right now!”

Marinette smiled as he ran off to go call his secretary. The realization of what just happened finally sank in. She had just asked Adrien Agreste out on a date to the movies. Did she stutter? Most likely. She forgot everything she had just told him. Did he accept?

“Oh my gosh I just invited Adrien to the movies,” Marinette breathed as Alya came up to her, hanging an arm over her shoulder. The comforting weight of her friend didn’t even help Marinette and her nerves that were building up.

“Hey, girl! What’s got you staring into space?”

“I just asked Adrien to the movies!” Marinette began panicking.

“You did? What did he say?” Alya asked in surprise.

“Yes! He said yes!”

“That’s great!”

“This is a disaster! What if accidentally oversleep? What if my outfit doesn't look nice? What if I get the tickets but then I lose them but don’t realize until getting to the theatre and Adrien’s there waiting for me so hopefully and then gets disappointed when I don’t have and then it affects his modeling and then Gabriel Agreste will arrest me for causing his son so much sadness and then-”

“You really love to ramble. It’s going to be fine. Do you really think that Adrien would do something like that if you messed up one little thing?”

“No.”

“Then don’t worry about it!” Alya encouraged her anxious friend, giving her a warm rub on the shoulders as they made their way to class. “The thing that matters is that you asked him and he responded! He’s interested in you for sure.”

“I don’t know…” Marinette frowned with doubt. Before Alya could say anything, Adrien came up to them. Alya excused herself to get to class while the two stood there. Marinette could already see that the phone call didn’t go well; Adrien already looking gloomy before he could say anything. 

“Natalie said that I’m busy for the next couple of weeks. I won’t have time to go. I’m sorry, Marinette,” Adrien sighed, shoulders sagging. Marinette couldn’t help but feel bad. It seemed like he was really looking forward to this movie. Maybe not even as a date but just a time to go out and have some fun with a close friend.

“That’s alright, it was a spontaneous invite anyway. How about another time? You can let me know when you’re free and we can go then. We could also see if anyone else if up for that too,” Marinette comforted Adrien who smiled sadly at her.

“Thanks. I’ll try to make time,” he said and the two entered class. They got into their seats and Marinette’s own spirits fell as she looked at his dropping frame. Even his hair seemed to struggle against gravity at the moment. She had triumphantly proved to herself that she could have the courage to ask Adrien out, but failed to realize how difficult it was for the two of them to actually meet outside of school. One day though her dreams might be victorious in the end.


	15. Day 18: Fears

Marinette knew she had many fears. Not just her own personal fears such as looking ridiculous in front of Adrien or destroying something of value due to her clumsiness, but also fears in her super persona. She feared something happening to her family and friends, she feared rejection from Gabriel Agreste, she feared failing the people of Paris and getting them hurt. What she didn’t expect to fear was losing her foundation on where she stood.

“Where is my sketchbook?” Marinette wailed as she ransacked her room. Tikki stared down at the young girl from her spot up on the banister from the room, watching her holder with a sigh.

“You just had it with you a few seconds ago, how did you already lose it?”

“I put it right here! Right here, Tikki!” Marinette aggressively gestured to where the sketchbook was supposed to be on her desk but had seemingly decided to grow legs and walk away according to Marinette. Tikki voiced her doubts about walking sketchbooks but Marinette wasn’t buying it.

“It was a new sketchbook anyway, you only had a few designs in there and most of them were of Chat Noir’s face,” Tikki giggled which didn’t help Marinette relax.

“What if Chat Noir gets a hold of my book and finds the drawings and thinks that I still am in love with him and decides to be with me since Ladybug is always constantly rejecting him but then we can’t be together since it would be dangerous and Chat Noir is so upset he gets akumatized?”

“Marinette, we both know that Chat Noir wouldn’t get akumatized over something like that,” Tikki rolled her eyes fondly as Marinette once again checked under her chaise for the sketchbook.

“You’re right, Chat wouldn’t do that. But what if he makes fun of me? And he’s already such a confident flirt he’ll never live that down,” Marinette grumbled. The kawmi giggled again at this and watched Marinette run downstairs to desperately ask her parents where the book went. There was movement from outside on the balcony and Tikki carefully made her way up and peered out from the window. She stared in surprise at the black tail swishing curiously as Chat Noir observed the missing sketchbook in his hands.

Tikki flew back down just as Marinette plodded upstairs in despair.

“It’s gone forever,” she moaned and collapsed onto her chaise, arms lip at her side.

“I wouldn’t say that. You might want to check outside on the balcony,” Tikki piped up but Marinette frowned, turning to face Tikki.

“But I didn’t go up there today. The only time I would even bother going us is to water the plants which I TOTALLY FORGOT TO DO BECAUSE I WAS TOO BUSY DRAWING THE SUN RISE IN MY SKETCHBOOK THIS MORNING,” Marinette flew off the chaise and scaled her ladder with ease, throwing open the skylight door.

Chat let out an inhuman screech as Marinette banged open the door, panting. He nearly tossed the sketchbook over the rails but caught it.

“Chat!” Marinette demanded.

“Hi, Marinette!” Chat chuckled awkwardly, “Pleasure seeing you here! Who would've known!”

“This is my house,” Marinette deadpanned and Chat cringed.

“Wow that’s so cool I totally forgot ha ha,” he mumbled before noticing Marinette staring at the sketchbook in hand.

“I saw this on the floor outside and figured it was yours that got knocked down in the wind,” he offered it to her. Marinette snatched it up quickly, feeling bad when Chat winced at her sudden motion.

“Um, thank you. This really means a lot to me,” she tried to make up for her actions, feeling meek.

“You draw very nicely, I really liked your sunrise. Was that from this morning?” Chat asked and Marinette nodded.

“I forgot my sketchbook out here while I was drawing today. I’ve been trying to draw other things than clothes so this was more of an experiment. Mainly faces of people I know like-” Marinette realized she was about to talk about the pictures of said hero’s face and shut her mouth quickly to prevent him from knowing. Fate didn’t have it in her though and the wind picked up. As Marinette blinked and rubbed her eyes when some debris got in her eye, her notebook came open and flashed all of the many pictures of Chat Noir’s face right at the hero himself.

Chat Noir’s eyes widened while Marinette squeaked and slammed it shut, staring back at the hero with identical large eyes.

“Was that-”

“NO,” Marinette interrupted him which wasn’t the best course of action as it confirmed his question. Chat’s eyes narrowed and Marinette paled at the smirk that rose up.

“Well, I didn’t know you were still swooning over me like this, Princess,” he purred.

“What? Me? Of course not!” Marinette fibbed. “You just have aesthetically pleasing facial features- Not like it’s handsome or anything. Just attractive to stare at- which is totally from an artist perspective and not anything more!” 

“You don’t need to make up a long winded story, Marinette. I know I’m that good looking,” Chat joked and and laughed at Marinette’s groan.

“I knew this would only add to your ego,” she huffed.

“Ego? I know of no such thing.” Chat sighed and made a dramatic look in Marinette’s direction, “I’m just a poor cat boy who was cursed with these handsome features that seem to sweep everyone off their feet. No matter what I look good. It’s a tragedy, really,” he said somberly but the smile on his face said otherwise.

“Alright you’ve had enough self praise for one day, go bother someone else you stray,” she urged him off.

“See? My beautiful features are so powerful that I can’t be with anyone for too long lest they go blind,” Chat climbed onto the rail with a dramatic pose on it. He looked like a sad, defeated prince laying down his life for his one true love. In this case his one true love would be himself.

“You know going blind doesn’t sound that bad if I don’t have to see your face anymore,” Marinette said with no hint of compassion.

“Meowch! My Princess has sharp claws today! I shall depart before she tries to tear me apart with her jealousy. But then there will be no one to gaze upon my glorious and aesthetically pleasing facial features.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be leaving?” Marinette rose an eyebrow and Chat Noir extended his staff, perched onto it as he rose above the balcony.

“Farewell, my feisty feline. Maybe one day we’ll meet again and you can swoon under my beauty.”

“I hope not!” Marinette called back and he grinned mischievously before heading down the road with a wave. She watched him get farther away with a sigh and slipped back into her room, missing sketchbook safely in hand.

“He seemed to like the drawings!” Tikki praised encouragingly.

“That’s what I feared. Now he’ll never shut up about it,” Marinette shook her head in annoyance but the smile on her face only grew.


	16. Day 19 and 20: Dressed Up with a New Look

“What’s happening today?” Tikki asked as Marinette put her hair up into a bun. The kwami watched Marinette as she meticulously pinned her hair up.

“Ms. Bustier wants us to volunteer for a company next week that’s focused on providing students with internships and training based on what they want to do. She isn’t able to make it to the meeting the company is holding that’s going over all of the opportunities available to make sure everyone has a chance to do something, so I’m going in her place at lunch. She said it was a formal luncheon so I thought it would be nice to look presentable,” Marinette finished her hair and examined it critically. She nodded in approval, carefully smoothing her black A-line suit skirt and adjusting her soft blue blouse before putting on her low black heels. She stared into the mirror, biting her lip as she examined her outfit.

“You look good!” Tikki beamed. “Very presentable for a meeting.”

“You think so?” Marinette asked.

“Of course, you have a great fashion sense,” Tikki complimented. This relaxed Marinette and some of the tension left her shoulders.

“Thanks, Tikki,” she smiled. Marinette checked her phone and sighed in relief, seeing that she was on time. 

She quickly changed into a blue top and gray jeans, still cautious not to mess up her bun. She didn’t want to accidentally ruin her clothes so she planned to change at school. Ms. Bustier was going to let her out of class early so she could have time to get to the meeting which relaxed Marinette since she knew she wouldn’t be running late.

She grabbed a small black purse rather than her pink one and let Tikki slip inside it, letting the magnet click it shut. After grabbing her backpack, Marinette headed downstairs carefully in her heels. Thankfully the company wasn’t too far from the school- just a few blocks down the road- so she didn’t have to walk for too long in the heels.

Her parents happily waved her off as she left and complimented her outfit, encouraging Marinette. She walked confidently out of the bakery and headed to school, not wobbling on her low heels.

She greeted Alya and Nino who were hanging out at the benches in the courtyard. They stared in surprise as she approached.

“Whoa, girl! You look good!” Alya exclaimed.

“Thanks,” Marinette smiled shyly.

“You’re looking pretty cool, dude! Do you have anything special to do today?” Nino asked.

“A date?” Alya wiggled her eyebrows. Marinette blushed, flustered.

“What? No!” Marinette started to explain when she was interrupted by someone coming up to them.

“You look great, Marinette! You have a date today?” Adrien smiled kindly.

“I have to go to a meeting today for the company we’re going to work with next week. They’re having a luncheon that Ms. Bustier couldn’t attend. So it’s more like a boring lunch date,” Marinette joked. The others chuckled.

“You look really good, anyway. I like your bun,” Adrien complimented. Marinette squeezed her purse strap shyly.

“Thank you,” Marinette smiled. The bell rang and the four headed to class, all chatting about Marinette’s meeting to day as they wondered what it would be about.

“You look good, Marinette!” Mylene gasped as they came in. Everyone piped in with compliments and by the time class started, Marinette’s cheeks were rosy with praise.

“Marinette is going to the meeting in place of me today for the company we’re going to be working with next week,” Ms. Bustier started the class with the announcement. “She’ll be taking notes and report what jobs they have for us so if you want anything specifically for her to take notes on, let her know before she leaves for lunch.”

Everyone started excitedly talking to one another about the jobs they could possibly do. The few that knew what they wanted to do talked to Marinette right then and she jotted down what they wanted. After a few minutes class started and the day continued on like normal with the exception from either a lot of silent whispers or silence as the students thought over what they wanted to do. Marinette couldn’t help but notice that Adrien was unusually silent today, not participating in any class discussions.

A few minutes before the bell rang for lunch, Ms. Bustier dismissed Marinette to change.

Marinette grabbed her backpack and headed to the locker room, changing carefully in the bathroom and adjusting her bun that got a little messed up during class, and put her things away securely into her locker before heading out just as the bell rang.

Students started filing out towards the cafeteria as Marinette walked out, notes on what most of the class wanted safely tucked away. She noticed Adrien hadn’t said anything that he wanted to do.

“Marinette!” as if reading her mind, Marinette turned to see Adrien jogging up to her. She noticed he stared at her outfit before focusing on her.

“Um- wow. You look really nice in that,” Adrien said in awe. Marinette blushed, completely taken aback by his sudden shyness.

“Thank you,” Marinette replied softly, trying to regain herself.

“Um, so. I don’t know what I really want to do,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck with uncertainty. “I mean I have a ton of hobbies my dad has me which I guess I could focus on as a job and if not I can pick up something quickly related to his business, but…” he struggled to continue as if cursed to never say what he really felt.

“You want to do something you want to do, not something that’s expected of you,” Marinette finished. He looked up at her in relief, shoulders sagging as the tension left it.

"Yes."

“What do you like?” Marinette asked.

“That’s the thing. I don’t really know what I like. I can’t help but feel so lost with what I want to do. Am I making you late? I probably am aren’t I.” Adrien sighed and smiled sadly, “Nevermind, it’d be best if you find something related to my hobbies or something that would better me in my dad’s eyes like business. Have fun at the luncheon.”

Marinette watched painfully as he turned and walked away, his shoulders slumped. She wanted to go after him and talk to him but he was right; Marinette was going to be late if she didn’t leave now.

She headed out to the meeting with a frown as she walked. What could she find that would make Adrien happy? Mostly everyone had figured out what they had wanted her to look up, and if not Marinette knew them well enough to find things they would like to do. But it was the first time she realized that she didn’t know what Adrien enjoyed doing. Adrien was regulated by his father to the point that the former himself didn’t know what he was passionate about.

 

The building was relatively easy to find and the people were very friendly, pointing Marinette to the large room where the tables were all set up. Marinette worried if there was assigned seating until a staff member guided her to a seat.

She felt out of place as she looked around the room full of adults, all wearing professional attire. It seemed like she was the only student here.

“Marinette?” she turned at the familiar voice.

“M. Kubel!” Marinette blinked in surprise. 

“I’m surprised to see you here. Is anyone sitting here?” he asked and at Marinette’s shake, Alix’s father sat down with her at the table.

“I’m here as representative for my class. We’re going to be volunteering here at this company. I don’t know much about it though,” Marinette admitted.

“This company is actually an outreach program that connects with other businesses and companies that allows students of all ages to work as volunteers or interns. You can see the representative for Mme. Cesaire culinary group over there,” he pointed out Alya’s mom and other representatives for businesses. “What I don’t understand is that they have this meeting during the weekday so many teachers are unable to show up so they can take notes for the students. There are a few representatives from other schools that are also doing this program. I think it’s good that you came since you know your classmates so well that it will help you decide what they want to focus on.” 

“I’m glad to be here,” Marinette smiled and the speaker came up to the podium as everyone settled into their seats. 

Servers came out with dishes and the different representatives introduced themselves and what jobs they were offering, Marinette taking studious notes. Many offered simple jobs while others recommended interns that already had some level of knowledge in the field.

Marinette wrote down the names of the companies that would benefit her class; an acting company for Mylene, a sports brand for Kim, a computer science internship for Max, art groups for Alix and Nathaniel, and so forth.

As the representatives continued on, Marinette was losing options for Adrien who was still left blank on her list. Only him, Nino, Ivan, Juleka, and Rose were left.

Marinette sat twiddling her pen anxiously when a music company came up. Marinette wrote off the names of Nino, Ivan, Juleka, and Rose once they started going in depth on their company and Marinette wrote all of the information she could get before the representative left. A few more came up after him but didn’t leave Marinette with anything helpful for Adrien.

The meeting ended and many people left to go back to their jobs. Marinette was still bothered, sitting at the table as she tried to find out what job Adrien would like. Marinette had gotten everyone but him and it was nagging at her.

She looked up at the few people still there and spotted one of the representatives that had spoken. Her eyes widened and an idea came to mind. She quickly got up and approached her, smiling as the perfect job hit her.

“Excuse me, monsieur,” Marinette gave her brightest smile as the representative turned, standing tall and feeling confidence surging through her as she started to talk.

 

Marinette entered the school late, getting a scolding from M. D’Argencourt as she hurried around the courtyard where her students were finishing up their gym class for the day. Everyone perked up as she arrived and hurried to where she was waiting outside of the locker room to ask about the jobs once they were dismissed.

“What did you find?”

“You’re looking cute in that outfit!”

“What food was there?”

“Really, Nino? All you think about is the food?” everyone stopped asking questions to laugh at Alya’s remark.

“I have the jobs here, let me hand them out,” she passed them out to everyone who thanked her and headed off to change out of their sweaty gym clothes, chattering excitedly. 

Adrien was last, smiling kindly but looking defeated.

“I’m ready to hear my amazing job,” Adrien tried to make a joke of it but Marinette could tell he already accepted his forced position to follow what his dad wanted.

“I got you an internship playing piano,” she handed him the paper. 

“An internship under a world famous pianist so improve my skills?” Adrien smiled sadly.

“I think you should read it first,” Marinette hummed with a secretive smile. Adrien starred in surprise before looking down at the paper and reading it with a curious frown. Marinette’s smile grew as his eyes widened.

“You’ve always been good at helping Alya, Nino, and I with studying for physics since you’re amazing at it, so I thought it would be fun for you to teach. And you seemed to really like playing in the band with Luka. I found an internship that has the music aspect and asked if they had anything related to teaching music and they mentioned another company that wasn't there. I had to contact them about the position and at first they were reluctant but I managed to get them interested in taking you.”

“I get to help teach piano students?” Adrien asked excitedly.

“And it’s not primarily focused on classical music. They have a ton of other teaching positions for other instruments like guitar and drums so the teachers like to have the students intermingle and learn. You’ll be working on all types of music with a ton of people.”

“This is perfect, Marinette! Thank you!” Adrien was almost bursting with happiness. His smile was radiant and it looked like he was using all of his willpower to not dance around.

“I’m glad I could find something you enjoy,” Marinette couldn’t help but follow his enthusiasm with a bright smile of her own.

“This is going to be amazing! I can’t wait for this! I should let you get changed out of that,” he realized with a chuckle “By the way, I do like your outfit. It’s professional but not too professional like I always see on my father or Natalie. It fits you well.”

“I should make this my new look then,” she smiled as they headed to the locker rooms. “You should make that your new look too,” Marinette pointed out to his gym clothes and Adrien laughed. It was a bright laugh that she hadn’t heard since the umbrella incident, making her flush.

“I don’t know how many people would like sweaty gym clothes, but if the fashion designer is telling me to I guess I should,” he smiled and Marinette giggled, feeling elated as the locker doors gently closed behind them.


	17. Day 25 & 26 - Fashion Design with Jagged Stone

“Well if it isn’t my favorite designer!” Jagged Stone cheered as Penny let Marinette into the suite. Fang let out a rumble as Jagged went over to greet Marinette.

“Hi, M. Stone! I heard you wanted a new look?” Marinette asked as Penny offered them a seat. The three sat down comfortably, Jagged leaning back and plucking a few notes on his guitar as he focused on Marinette.

“I wanted to go with a new look but at the same time keep up with what I have. I want something bold, fierce, me!”  Jagged exclaimed. Marinette pondered thoughtfully, pulling out her sketchbook.

“Do you want to keep the same colors?”

“I definitely want to keep the black, but maybe we can try another color than gold? Something to match my look of course,”

“How about red or blue?”

“Let’s do red like Ladybug! She’s totally rad,” Jagged said and Marinette beamed at the compliment.

“Red it is then. Do you want to keep the snakeskin design?”

“I like the snakeskin design since it reminds me of Fang,” he looked fondly over at his pet crocodile, “But I’m up for any other cool designs you have in mind. I know you’ll pick out something that’s perfect for me.”

“How about instead of the jacket being snakeskin we do your shoes and gloves? I’ll make sure the gloves don’t get in your way when you’re playing.”

“That sounds wicked, Marinette! I’m going on tour in America tomorrow but I’ll give you both Penny’s and my number so you can send us pictures of the designs,” Jagged said and pulled out his phone.

“Your number?” Marinette squeaked. Jagged casually handed her his phone. Marinette took it and handed him her phone before typing in her number in awe. She had gotten Jagged Stone’s number!

Marinette also exchanged numbers with Penny and took Jagged’s measurements before heading out. Once Penny closed the door and Marinette was out of hearing distance from them, she squealed.

“I got Jagged Stone’s number! I’m so excited! I can’t believe that this is happening! I get to design Jagged Stone’s new outfit!”

“That’s great, Marinette!” Tikki said proudly as Marinette pressed the elevator button.

“What if I mess up though and Jagged doesn’t like it? What if the colors aren’t right or I make it too small or it falls apart during one of his performances? It’ll be a disaster!”

Tikki opened her mouth to say something when noticing someone down the hall. As she ducked out of site Marinette opened her bag curiously to ask Tikki what was wrong when she heard a familiar voice.

“Hey, Marinette!”

Marinette spun around to see Adrien come up to her with a kind smile.

“I thought I heard you from Chloe’s room,” he pointed to where Chloe was glaring at the designer from her bedroom door. Marinette chose to ignore the blonde who harrumphed in anger, slamming the door of her room.

“She was telling me she’s was having a bad day so I stopped by to see her. I was just about to leave when I heard you out the hall. Who were you talking to?”

“Oh... you know... my mom called! She was… wondering where I was! So I told her!” Marinette fibbed anxiously. Thankfully the elevator doors opened and the two went inside, causing a distraction in the conversation.

“I heard you mention something about Jagged Stone?” Adrien asked as he pressed the button for the lobby. Marinette nodded.

“Jagged Stone wants me to design a new outfit for him so we were talking about ideas,” Marinette was about to continue about her doubts when Adrien interrupted happily.

“That’s great! You can definitely do it. Jagged Stone always likes what you do so I’m sure he’ll love it. I always see him with those glasses you made him,” Adrien smiled and Marinette copied his expression, feeling more at ease.

“I guess you’re right. I just hope I don’t mess up,” Marinette said.

“You won’t,” Adrien comforted her and Marinette nodded, determined. The elevator doors opened and the two departed, Marinette decided to walk home so she could get more ideas.

She ended up stopping in different areas and sketching ideas that came to her, and continued to do so for the rest of the day long after she got home. Tikki watched her holder who was mumbling to herself as she kept drawing design after design.

The next day Marinette looked over her work and sent the ones she liked to Jagged and Penny along with a few others that might interest them. Jagged didn’t reply because he was busy getting ready for a concert but Penny complimented a few of them. Marinette decided to go shopping tomorrow and get the materials she would most likely need while waiting for a response from Jagged, excitement coursing through her despite being a little nervous. This was all new to her and she was eager to try out a different style than what she was used to.

After asking the owner of the fabric shop some questions about snake skin designs and patterns, Jagged’s response came in. He exclaimed how much he loved the one that Marinette had also really liked, making the young designer giggle excitedly in the shop.

Now certain with what she needed, Marinette purchased the material and rushed home to get started on it.

Over the next week, Marinette’s room was a flurry of fabrics and measurements as Marinette worked tirelessly on Jagged’s outfit. The said rock star called to let her know they were coming back in a few days and Marinette was determined to have it completed by then.

 

Marinette stood in front of her mannequin, examining it for the last time. She had replaced the shiny snake skin jacket with a black leather and pants with red accents, two long red stripes made of snakeskin running down the sides of the pants to the feet. On the back of the jacket was Jagged’s logo in red snakeskin. Marinette stitched in red cloth epaulettes but also added a lace border since Jagged liked lace. The frills of the epaulette though had gold chains instead of the old leather frills. The shoes and gloves were a red and black snakeskin design that took the most effort to make but came out rather well for being Marinette’s first time making something like this.

“Marinette! They’re here!” her mom called out from below. Marinette panicked for a quick second before Tikki ushered her down.

Jagged Stone and Penny were chatting with the Dupain-Chengs, everyone excited about the outfit. Jagged looked up as Marinette came down.

“The designer has arrived! Can we go check them out?” he asked eagerly, bouncing on his feet like a child.

“Sure! Come on up!” Marinette lead the way in and the four adults entered. Jagged immediately gasped and ran over to admire the clothing.

“This is totally rocking! The lace was a great touch!” Jagged praised. Marinette giggled in pride as the others went to admire it, complimenting the outfit.

“I’m going to try it on right now!” Jagged hurried to the bathroom, taking the entire mannequin with him. Everyone chuckled and followed the rock star downstairs, continuing to talk about Jagged’s latest performance and his concert in a couple of days.

“Speaking of that,” Penny turned to Marinette and offered her some tickets and VIP passes backstage. “We wanted to give these to you for all of your help. You can take some friends along with you.”

“Thank you thank you thank you!” Marinette exclaimed happily.

“No, thank you. You’ve been amazing,” Penny smiled.

Jagged burst out of the bathroom proudly dressed in his new outfit. The red complimented his hair quite well which was a relief to Marinette.

“This feels amazing! The leather isn’t too thick so I’m not getting hot in it. The shoes and gloves are also extremely comfortable! You’re my personal rockstar, Marinette!” Jagged beamed.

“Thank you, M. Stone!” Marinette tried not to squeal.

“Please, just call me Jagged,” the rockstar smiled. Marinette tried not to pass out from happiness as they said their farewells and left, Jagged still dressed in his new outfit.

“Great job, Marinette!” Tom said proudly, “You’re going to do wonders out there in the fashion world, seeing that you’ve already been approved by Jagged Stone!”

“I was really worried about the design since I’ve never made something like it before, but I practiced working hard on it and I’ve really improved from where I was before. Thank you for your support,” Marinette told her parents.

“Anything for you to follow your dream,” Sabine smiled. Marinette hugged them before rushing upstairs where she called Alya to tell her the news.

After much screaming and fangirling, Alya told Marinette to call Adrien about the tickets.

“Call him?” Marinette blanched.

“Yes! Let him congratulate you! Bask in this feeling, girl! Just go for it! I’ll tell Nino about the tickets so by the time I call you again I better hear good news!” Alya said before hanging up. Marinette now uncertainly looked at her phone.

Tikki put a comforting hand on Marinette, “You’ve got this. Just tell him all three of you are going!”

“You’re right, I can do this,” Marinette pinched her lip determinedly and quickly pressed on Adrien’s number. She held back a scream as he picked up almost instantly.

“Marinette?” he asked.

“Hey! Um, so Jagged Stone is back in Paris and got my outfit and he really liked it!” Marinette said quickly, as she gripped the pillow on her chaise.

“That’s great! I knew he would like it. You’re amazing at everything you do,” Adrien said warmly.

Marinette felt the world disappear at the compliment, smiling dreamily as she imagined him saying it to her in person, holding her hands in his before leaning forward and-

“Marinette?” Adrien asked and Tikki pinched her holder.

“Ouch! I mean, thanks!” Marinette yelped.

“Are you okay?” Adrien asked worriedly.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine! You know clumsy me! Anyway, Jagged Stone gave me some tickets to his concert next week and I wanted to invite you out with me. And Nino and Alya! Of course they’ll be there too so it’s not just you and me on a date. It’s not a date! Just a hangout! I’m rambling sorry,” Marinette finished lamely.

“I’d love to come. I’ll get Nathalie to open up some time for the concert since I love Jagged Stone. I’ll see you later then,” Adrien said.

“Yeah, see you later!” Marinette hung up and screamed into her pillow.

“I can’t believe I said date! I’m so weird! I hope he doesn’t think it’s actually a date! But what if he does? Should I dress nicely for it?” Marinette groaned into her pillow. Tikki giggled.

“On the plus hand you conversed a lot better than you normally do,” Tikki smiled. “You’re really changing Marinette! Not only are you talking to your crush better and actually able to hang out with him more, you’re also exploring more in the fashion world! Maybe one day you’ll be able to work alongside Gabriel Agreste!”

“That would certainly be a dream come true,” Marinette sighed and laid back into the chaise, squeezing her pillow in a hug. Tikki went over and cuddled into Marinette’s cheek, making the heroine giggle and cuddle back happily. The two started to talk on the chaise, Marinette finding a stray piece of snakeskin by her pillow and feeling the material under her skin. She couldn’t help but smile widely, excited for her new step into fashion design.


	18. Day 30 & 31: Breaking Swap

“You shouldn’t go to school today,” Tikki worried as Marinette got dressed. The teenager blinked tiredly as she got ready, trying to ignore her throbbing head. Her body ached as if someone decided to run her over repeatedly and her throat wouldn’t stop burning no matter how much water she drank.

“I have to. Not only have I missed so much class from the akumas recently, I have to work on my group project today. My group’s expecting me to be there and I can’t let them down,” Marinette broke into yet another coughing fit.

Hawkmoth had been mad about something, sending out more akumas every day. Just yesterday there were three of them, and Marinette had already not been feeling well from the lack of sleep she had been getting plus the nasty cold she got from Manon. She couldn’t stop coughing all night from her throat which kept her up. All she wanted to do was sleep, but life must continue.

Marinette trudged downstairs and grabbed a croissant, not really hungry. She added some honey into her milk and warmed it up to sooth her throat, nibbling on her small breakfast while staring of into space.

She left with no trouble since her parents were busy with work and could only give her well wishes in school. If they had actually seen her condition though, Sabine would’ve sent her straight back to bed and Tom would’ve started to make her some soup to help her. But with the new orders coming in with their rise in popularity, they unfortunately missed their daughter’s condition.

Marinette got to school without stumbling or falling asleep on her feet which was a miracle in her mind. After putting her things away, she got to class and settled down next to Alya who was talking with Nino and Adrien.

“What’s up, girl?” Alya greeted happily. Marinette responded by laying her head down on the desk.

“Manon definitely got me sick,” she mumbled.

“I assume it got worse?” Alya frowned down at her exhausted friend. Marinette nodded, rubbing her head on the desk.

“Why didn’t you just stay home?” Alya asked.

“It’s better if you rest so you don’t get worse, catching colds from Chris taught me that,” Nino said.

“I can’t miss working on the project,” Marinette said and coughed. The coughing doubled in intensity and the three exchanged worried looks.

“How about we just work on it at your place? It’s not too hard for us since we can meet up at lunch,” Alya said.

“I’ve already missed so much class I don’t want to be marked absent,” Marinette rasped, grabbing her water bottle she brought and drinking some.

“Why don’t you rest in the nurse's office? Then we can work on the group project at lunch and you can head home after?” Adrien advised.

“I’ll take you there,” Alya offered but Marinette shook her head.

“I don’t want to miss anything.”

“We’ll take notes for you. You need to rest,” Nino said. After much nudging and grumbling, Alya herded Marinette out of class. The two boys watched in concern as Marinette ran head first into the doorframe and didn't even react. Everyone else in class laughed as Alya pulled Marinette outside with a shake of her head.

Alya sighed as she guided Marinette to the office.

“You've got to start taking better care of yourself, girl. I'm worried about you.”

“I'm fine,” Marinette waved her free hand dismissively. Alya didn't look convinced but before she could say something her phone chirped. She pulled it out and gasped, eye lighting up.

“Akuma attack! Come on,” Alya guided Marinette inside the nurse's office quickly before quickly hightailing to the the fight.

Marinette waited a few seconds and made sure the office was empty before she opened her purse.

“This isn't a good idea,” Tikki warned.

“We have to stop the akuma,” Marinette sighed. Everything hurt and just looking at the bed in the nurses office made her want to curl up and sleep. But she had a job to do.

Marinette scrunched up her face to the most determined look she could possibly muster at the moment, but it felt like she was grimacing rather than preparing herself.

“Spots on,” she whispered and the magic washed over her in a flash of pink.

As Ladybug she felt slightly better but it didn’t completely hold back the soreness as she vaulted herself out of the school or soothe the burning in her throat as she ran across the rooftops of Paris.

“That faster we get this done, the sooner I can sleep,” Ladybug mumbled to herself, glancing at the screen of her yoyo and pinpointing the location of the akuma through the Ladyblog. Marinette was impressed out Alya could always arrive quickly to the akuma’s location even if she was across town.

As she set off, leaping across rooftops to get to the akuma, Ladybug gradually felt more and more exhausted. She was desperate for Chat Noir to arrive soon so he could help out. Last couple of days had been busy for him in his civilian life so she had to fight some akuma’s alone. She wasn’t mad at him though. It was hard being a hero and having a normal life behind the mask, especially if you lived a busy normal life like herself. Just talking with Chat every now and then made her realize she wasn’t the only one that was constantly on her feet with work. He had a right to his own life like she had with hers and Ladybug made she he got his time to enjoy it.

Chat Noir despised not being there though. It upset him when he couldn’t make it because he disliked her fighting by herself and didn’t want to add any more stress onto her life. They both knew that out of the two of them Ladybug always had to show up to purify the akuma and fix everything. That had always ruffled Chat’s fur backwards, he would tell her. Why couldn’t he help her in exchange? He vented about it yesterday after he had shown up late for the second akuma of the day, doubling his efforts when the third one came around so it was much easier for Ladybug to manage herself. But she knew that if he kept up this valiant effort to always help her then he too would tire out. And they couldn’t have two exhausted heroes on the job,

Speaking of exhausted, Ladybug wondered if the ground had always seemed wavy until she missed her footing and barely managed to clear the rooftop she had leaped towards. She scrabbled for it desperately and felt her muscles shaking in exertion as she pulled herself up all of the way. Ladybug laid there panting for a second and finally got to her elbows and knees to push herself up.

“Ladybug?” she turned hopefully to see her partner approach in concern. He crouched down in concern as she leaned back onto her rear, sitting down.

“Hey, Chaton,” she rasped, smiling in relief. He didn’t look relieved, instead frowning and pressing his forehead to her own. Ladybug closed her eyes when his cool forehead made contact with hers, leaning into it release the heat in her. Had it always been this hot?

“You’re burning up,” he pulled back. She made of noise of discomfort at the loss of coolness.

“You can’t fight in this condition,” Chat Noir said. She had never heard him sound so serious before.

“I have to. The akuma’s out there and-” she broke into a coughing fit, pulling away from Chat Noir so she wouldn’t cough all over him. Chat Noir watched painfully as her body shook with every violent cough. When she finally stopped coughing, her eyes were watering. Chat Noir looked like a blur of green, blonde, and black as she stared back. 

“I can just stay back farther, it won’t be that bad,” she said as she wiped her eyes.

“You won’t get anywhere close to the akuma,” Chat said sternly.

“How about I cast a Lucky Charm in view of the akuma and you take him down?” Ladybug questioned. Chat Noir looked torn. They had to stop this akuma and Ladybug was the most vital piece to do it, but she couldn’t fight in this shape. 

Chat sighed in resignation, “Don’t get anywhere close. I’ll carry you,” he offered and Ladybug nodded. Chat Noir carefully picked up his partner and the two of them made their way to the battlefield.

They got there while the akuma, Firefrighter, was rampaging. He was a firefighter that had accidentally caught the kitchen on fire in the fire house, making his teammates laugh at him. Completely humiliated, Hawkmoth was able to akumatize the man to have the ability to humiliate and embarrass anyone he soaked with his large firehose. Chat Noir was thankful that it wasn’t that serious of an akuma. This would be easy with just one of them.

“My Lady,” he urged as he put Ladybug down in view of the akuma. Ladybug called for her Lucky Charm and they stared at the earring gun in her hand.

“I didn’t know we were getting a makeover,” Chat Noir chuckled as Ladybug glanced around. She stared at the akuma bud couldn’t formulate any idea. She turned back to face Chat Noir who had stood up to watch the akuma from where they were hiding, eye level with his hand sporting a black ring with a bright green paw print.

“Chat,” she said and the feline hero dropped down at her side.

“You found it?” he asked.

“We are getting a makeover,” she said. Chat Noir gave her a quizzical look before Ladybug pointed at the ring. His eyes widened as he realized what she meant.

“But you’ll have to take off your earrings in order to put them on me which will deactivate the Lucky Charm,” Chat frowned. Ladybug thought about this for a second before smiling.

“I know a place,” she said and Chat helped her up.

“Lead the way, My Lady,” Chat grinned.

 

They arrived at Marinette’s house and Ladybug quickly lead them in through the trap door. She rummaged around in random drawers, acting like she didn’t know where her earring gun was that she kept around but actually never used. She had been planning to pierce her ears again in case she wanted to wear other earrings beside the Ladybug Miraculous but was still throwing the idea around since she wasn’t certain if she really wanted to.

She pulled out the gun and opened it from it’s package, noticing Chat looking nervous.

“Won’t Ma- I mean the girl that lives here be upset?” Chat asked.

“She won’t mind. I know her so I can message her and let her know what happened,” Ladybug went to the bed and yanked off the comforter before climbing back down and throwing it on Chat who let out a noise of surprise.

“What are you doing?” Chat asked and tried to pull it off but Ladybug held it down.

“To keep our identities a secret,” she coughed and winced as her head throbbed in pain. Was it her or was everything getting blurry?

“Spots off,” she said and Tikki flew out of the earrings, watching anxiously as Chat also detranformed under the blanket. A flash of green could be seen from the edges of the blanket and Marinette watched the blanket move, a black kwami coming out holding the ring. This kwami was bigger than Tikki and looked like a cat, bright green eyes watching her curiously with a hint of amusement.

“This is going to hurt, kid,” the kwami snickered.

“Not now, Plagg,” Chat’s voice was muffled underneath the blanket. Marinette pulled off her earrings and quickly cleaned it with alcohol before loading it in. She adjusted the blanket so only Chat’s ear was showing, noticing the golden locks that looked similar to his hero attire but more combed.

After cleaning his ear with alcohol as well, Marinette adjusted the earing gun so it was perfectly centered on Chat’s earlobe. She noticed Chat was completely still under the blanket.

“I’ll go on three, just take a deep breath and exhale as I count. Ready?” she rasped.

“Yeah,” Chat’s body moved under the blanket as he inhaled.

“One. Two. Three,” Marinette grimaced as she punctured it. Chat stiffened but didn’t flinch.

“One down, onto the next,” she said and repeated the process on his next ear. Chat once again was completely still as she punctured the other. She covered him with the blanket properly and watched him move, most likely touching the earrings.

“My dad’s going to give me an earful about this later,” he said and Marinette laughed before breaking into a violent cough. She hunched over as she coughed into her sleeve and felt Chat put his hand on her in comfort.

“You okay?” he asked,

“I’m fine. Let’s get this akuma out of the way. So I’m pretty sure you know the drill,” she smiled weakly and he shook in a laugh.

“How could I not? WIth such an excellent example showing me how all the time, I’ve got this cat in the bag,” Chat complimented and Marinette’s smile grew.

“Don’t you mean bug in a bag?” she asked in amusement.

“That’s right, I need to make bug puns now,” Chat chuckled.

“Let’s do this then,” Marinette took the ring from Plagg who’s grin only widened, tail flicking in excitement.

“Tikki, Spots On!” Chat shouted.

“Plagg, Claws Out!” Marinette called and she felt the shuddering power course through her body. This felt different from her normal transformation. While Tikki was all light and bubbly, Plagg was electrifying, amplifying her senses and leaving tingles as the transformation finished.

“Whoa,” they both breathed at the same time and chuckled when they heard one another.

Chat-Ladybug pulled off the blanket and the two stared at one another in awe.

Chat-Ladybug’s suit was different from her own design, the familiar red and black spots now only taking up the body and trailing down to the inner thighs while the sides of the suit were black down to the spotted boots and gloves. His hair had little red tips and she noticed that his hands were covered in black. Marinette paused, staring in curiously.

“You look like that Ultimate Mecha Strike 3 character when we teamed up and fought The Gamer,” she realized. Her suspicions were confirmed when he blushed.

“It was a cool design,” he shrugged and Marinette grinned.

She glanced down at her outfit to find it sleek like her own, but only solid black with lime green borders on the gloves and boots. She had a little zipper in front rather than a bell like Chat and a small belt to hold her baton. Rather than a tail, her hair was now a long braid, and she hoped it wouldn’t end up distracting her during the fight.

“Alright then, shall we show this akuma how  _ purrfect _ of a pair we are even without our normal power,  _ My Lady _ ?” she smirked. Chat’s already pink face got more red, his face starting to match the color of his suit.

“I’m going to need that miraculous back, Ladybug. That’s too much power you have in your hands,” Chat said and Marinette laughed.

They both hurried out to the akuma, worried about taking too long but finding nothing severely damaged minus some people doing very embarrassing things without being able to control themselves, such as singing in front of a loud audience, making terrible side conversation, dancing on top of tables where people had been eating, and so forth. It was rather funny to see it happening.

Chat noticed Ladybug was struggling even more now having raced across the city. She grimaced in pain and he knew she was probably hurting everywhere. They had to wrap up this battle quickly.

“Lucky Charm!” he called out and couldn’t help but get giddy when the yoyo produced an object. He grabbed it and stared at it, dumbfounded.

“What am I supposed to do with twine? Tie him up?” Chat asked, holding the spotted stool of string in confusion. Ladybug looked at the stool then focused on Firefrighter, spotting his hose as he squirted people. She grabbed her baton and smiled as the plan all came together.

“I know what to do with it. It’ll require a lot of muscle and fast reflexes in case he notices, which is probably why we had to switch. The Lucky Charm I had knew I wouldn’t be able to do it in this condition so it had us swap roles,” Ladybug quickly told her partner the plan and he nodded.

“Sounds good, Ladybug. Or I’m Ladybug,” Chat frowned.

“Hmm, how about Lady Noir?” Ladybug grinned. Chat beamed.

“I’ll be Lady Beetle! That way we’re both ladies!”

“You’re such a dork, Chaton,” she chuckled.

“You mean Bugaboo,” he winked.

“Whatever you say, Bug Brain,” she handed him her baton and took off. She laughed as Lady Beetle made a noise of indignation behind her as she darted away on all fours. It was actually easier to run on all fours which probably had to do with the cat-like reflexes Chat said he picked up while in the suit. Marinette was curious if she could also purr, but she figured she wouldn’t be able to unless she was relaxed. And an akuma attack wasn’t really a place to relax.

“Someone’s rather fired up today,” Lady Noir called out. The akuma growled, turning to the noise.

“Looks like some cat’s asking for a- who’re you?” Firefrighter asked as he stared at the feline hero. Alya excitedly focused on the hero who’s braided tail flicked humorously. It was weird to feel her hair moving on it’s own accord. Usually people would say their hair had a mind of its own, but this time it really did.

“Lady Noir, ready to extinguish your flames of fury!” Lady Noir called and charged the akuma. While she kept him distracted Lady Beetle quickly got to work, wrapping the twine around the hose before placing the baton on top of the hose and tying the twine around it in a knot and thus creating a makeshift tourniquet. He began to quickly twist the baton in a circular motion, knowing he was limited on time from the Lucky Charm. As he twisted, Lady Beetle realized now why they had swapped kwamis. The more he twisted, the harder it got for him to twist it since the water pressure was extremely powerful. He grunted as he continued to twist the twine and glanced up to see Lady Noir still keeping the akuma distracted, even managing get closer to the hose so the akuma couldn’t really notice the weakening current of the hose as he got more anxious as she drew closer.

Lady Noir glanced behind the akuma to see that Lady Beetle was just finishing up, tying the twine around the baton to make sure no more water escaped when he left. 

“Never look away from the fire, cat!” the akuma roared and pointed the hose at Lady Noir, but no water came out. Lady Noir ran off as Firefrighter looked behind him to see the hose swelling rapidly from the water that was building up without any release.

Lady Beetle picked up Alya who still hadn’t backed away from the fight as the hose groaned. Lady Noir knocked down an umbrella from a cafe nearby and hid behind it, Lady Beetle and the reporter joining her just in time.

The hose exploded with the pent up pressure, dousing the entire street in water. Firefrighter was hit with the impact and immediately began to do a terrible waltz while singing opera.

“Well that was quite the splash,” Lady Noir said and Lady Beetle whined.

“I’m supposed to say the puns!” he pouted.

“Go get the akuma in his badge, Bugaboo,” it felt weird calling him that after all of the times it was the other way around. It seemed like Lady Beetle felt the same as his eyes widened in surprise. His earring beeping broke him out of his trance and he got up from their spot and quickly went to get the akuma.

Lady Noir walked up to him as Beetle easily picked the badge off of the singing akuma’s chest and broke it, capturing the akuma in his yoyo. He slid his finger across the yoyo and the white butterfly flew out. Lady Beetle watched in awe as it flew away.

“Bye bye little butterfly,” they said in unison and laughed. Lady Noir coughed some more and Beetle frowned.

“We need to get you out of here,” he said.

“Miraculous Ladybug,” Lady Noir pointed at the twine between coughs and Lady Beetle quickly picked up the unrolled twine from the explosion and threw it up into the sky, reverting everything back into normal. The baton appeared back in Lady Noir’s hand and the two smiled at their work.

“Good job!” they fist bumped one another. Beetle’s earring chirped and the two took off to Marinette’s house.

When they landed safely inside, Lady Beetle quickly covered himself with the blanket and the two detransformed. The kwami’s happily went back to their original owners who gave them food. The kwamis flew up into the rafters of Marinette’s room and the two holders were left alone.

“That was pretty fun,” Chat said. Marinette agreed.

“It even feels different. Your miraculous feels electrifying,” Marinette said and the two got seated on her floor.

“Yours felt bubbly. It reminded me of you,” he said and Marinette could hear the warmth of his voice.

“So what now? The earrings are going to be noticeable on you,” she said to Chat. He sighed.

“I’ll have to take them off but they won’t heal for a while most likely. My father’s not going to approve.”

“Maybe you can bandage it?” Marinette suggested.

“I can try, it’ll be hard though. But I don’t regret this at all, just letting you know. I would do this all over again,” he said. Despite feeling dreadfully exhausted, Marinette was happy.

“Me too, Chaton.”


End file.
